World News

LONDON (Reuters) – Former British finance minister Rishi Sunak won the fourth round of voting in the contest to replace Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Tuesday.

Lawmaker Kemi Badenoch was eliminated from the contest.

(Reporting by Kylie MacLellan and Alistair Smout; writing by William James)

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JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s new prime minister paid an unannounced visit to the border with Lebanon on Tuesday, threatening to unleash a harsh military response to what he described as “unacceptable” aggression by the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group.

The visit came at a time of heightened tensions with Hezbollah, a heavily armed group that fought Israel during a monthlong war in 2006. On Monday, Israel said it intercepted a drone that crossed from Lebanese territory, and last week, Hezbollah’s leader threatened Israel with military escalation if a dispute over a maritime border is not resolved in Lebanon’s favor.

“Israel is prepared to act against any threat,” said Yair Lapid, who took over Israel’s caretaker prime minister on July 1. “We have no interest in escalation but Hezbollah’s aggression is unacceptable and is liable to lead the entire region into an unnecessary escalation.”

He was joined by Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz and top military officials as he toured the area.

Israel considers Hezbollah its most serious immediate threat, estimating the Iranian-backed group has some 150,000 rockets and missiles aimed at Israel.

Earlier this month, the Israeli military said it shot down three unmanned aircraft launched by Hezbollah heading toward an area where an Israeli gas platform was recently installed in the Mediterranean Sea. Hezbollah confirmed it had launched three unarmed drones toward the disputed maritime area.

The launch of the drones appeared to be an attempt by Hezbollah to influence U.S.-brokered negotiations between Israel and Lebanon over their maritime border, an area that is rich in natural gas.

In a speech last week, Hezbollah’s leader, said Lebanon should be able to extract oil and gas in Lebanese waters and warned that sending the drones was “a modest beginning to where the situation could be heading.”

Lebanon claims the Karish gas field is disputed territory, while Israel says it lies within its internationally recognized economic waters. The United States has been mediating indirect negotiations since October 2020.

Israel and Lebanon, which have been officially at war since Israel’s creation in 1948, both claim some 860 square kilometers (330 square miles) of the Mediterranean Sea. Lebanon hopes to exploit offshore gas reserves as it grapples with the worst economic crisis in its modern history.

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HAVANA (AP) — The young people come and go on their electric motorcycles at this highway outside Cuba’s capital where they perform stunts and talk about their two-wheelers, which would be largely silent if it weren’t for the music blasting from speakers.

Cuba has been flooded in recent years with “motorinas,” as the electric scooters are called on the island, which have been promoted by the government as efficient alternatives amid extreme gas and diesel shortages, and as a solution to the country’s transportation problems.

Authorities permitted their importation last decade – Cubans cannot import motorcycles with gasoline or diesel engines – and since then about 300,000 of them have circulated on the island, said Col. Mario Ríos Labrada, head of vehicle registry at the National Transit Directorate. In comparison there are an estimated 500,000 cars.

The motorcycles can cost between $2,000 and $5,000. Many originate in China and are imported to Cuba through Panama. Cuban officials say a locally made electric motorcycle called the “Minerva” is being produced at an old bicycle manufacturing warehouse in Villa Clara.

“There is an ‘outbreak’ of electric motorcycles, everyone likes them,” said Ernesto José Salazar, 20, who works in a paint shop. “We got to meet up with 200 motorcycles, honking and listening to music.”

Young riders organize through social networks and spend hours discussing the benefits of a battery or where to buy tires or find the best workshop.

“Fuel is a lost cause, you have to look for it and queue up, right now having an electric motorcycle here is life itself,” said Alejandro Vasallo, 23.

Cuban drivers face shortages of fuel, especially diesel, which is also used to power the electricity generators that feed the nation’s power grid, which collapsed this summer. Oil shortages have been caused by difficulties in Venezuela – an ally and supplier of the island – and U.S. sanctions.

Electric scooter drivers recharge the batteries through normal power sockets and are out of luck when the supply goes down.

Authorities in Cuba promote electric motorcycles as energy efficient and as an alternative to a public transportation system plagued shortages of parts to repair broken down buses and a lack fuel.

“Electricity will always be cheaper than diesel fuel and gasoline, and in addition, electric motors are much more efficient than combustion engines, you can save up to 70% of the cost of fuel,” Ramsés Montes Calzadilla, strategy director of the Ministry of Energy and Mines, said in an interview with news website Cubadebate.

Electric motorcycles are changing the urban landscape in Cuba and also creating challenges: the batteries tend to catch fire and their relative silence accompanied by driver inexperience is causing traffic accidents.

The latest figures available from the Fire Department indicated that in the first half of 2020 there were 263 fires from motorcycles with gel or lithium batteries, a notable increase compared to 208 for the entire year 2019.

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QUITO (Reuters) – Thirteen prisoners were killed at a prison in the Ecuadorean city of Santo Domingo on Monday, Ecuador’s prison agency said, the latest incident of deadly jail violence in the Andean country.

The government of conservative President Guillermo Lasso attributes prison violence to fights between gangs over control of territory and drug trafficking routes.

Last year, 316 prisoners died during riots in various prisons across Ecuador.

The police and the armed forces were retaking control of the penitentiary, the SNAI prisons agency said on Twitter. It earlier called the incident a “dispute”.

“Unfortunately, personnel from the center report up to now that 13 prisoners are dead and two are injured,” the agency said, adding a final count will be carried out by the attorney general’s office.

Violence at the prison in Santo Domingo in May lead to 43 deaths.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has said Ecuador’s prison system is blighted by state abandonment and the absence of a comprehensive policy, as well as poor conditions for inmates.

The country’s prisons house about 33,900 people and are 12.5% beyond maximum capacity, according to official figures.

(Reporting by Alexandra Valencia; Writing by Julia Symmes Cobb; Editing by Sandra Maler)

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SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Shanghai reported 19 new domestically transmitted asymptomatic coronavirus cases for July 18, up from 14 a day earlier, while local symptomatic cases were four, up from three the day before, the city government said on Tuesday.

Zero cases were reported outside quarantined areas, compared with none the day before.

Shanghai recorded no COVID-19-related deaths for July 18, unchanged from a day earlier.

(Reporting by Shanghai newsroom; Writing by Bernard Orr; Editing by Himani Sarkar)

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BEIJING (Reuters) – Searing summer heat waves are expected to return this week across large parts of China, lasting through late August, the state weather forecaster said, despite brief interludes of seasonal rain.

Temperatures from 39 degrees Celsius to 42 degrees Celsius (102.2°F to 107.6°F) are expected in the southern region after July 20, including the provinces of Jiangxi, Zhejiang and Fujian, the China Meterological Administration said on Sunday.

Despite some weekend respite for provinces such as Hebei, Hunan, Hubei, Guizhou and Jiangxi, maximum temperatures elsewhere are expected to hover over 37 degrees Celsius (98.6°F).

The sweltering heat will last from July 16 to Aug. 24 nationwide for an “extended period” of 40 days, up from the usual 30, the forecaster said on its website.

The so-called “sanfu”, or “three periods of laying low” during China’s summer refers to three annual 10-day stretches between July and August when temperatures and humidity peak.

But this year, the second phase is expected to run for 20 days from July 26 to Aug. 14, the forecaster said.

China has broiled in average temperatures of about 35 degrees Celsius (95°F) for the past two weeks, bringing buckled roads and more hospital visits because of heat stroke, sparking discussion on social media.

Heat waves have gripped several nations as raging forest fires sweep parts of Europe. Temperatures on the U.S. west and southeast coasts have regularly hit 40 degrees Celsius to 45 degrees Celsius (104°F to 113°F) for several days.

On Monday, the Hong Kong observatory again warned of very hot weather in the global financial hub.

Chinese forecasters said the number of cities with high temperatures has gradually increased over the past 30 years. Many experts blame persistent high temperatures on global climate change.

(Reporting by Beijing newsroom; Writing by Bernard Orr; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

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SHANGHAI/BEIJING (Reuters) -Several large Chinese cities including Shanghai are on their toes due to new outbreaks of COVID-19 infections, rolling out repeated mass testing or extending lockdowns on millions of residents, with some measures triggering a public outcry.

China has reported an average of around 390 local daily infections in the seven days ending on Sunday, higher than about 340 seven days earlier, according to Reuters calculations based on official data as of Monday. That is tiny compared with a resurgence in other parts of Asia.

Still, any flare-up would unnerve local officials, with China adamant in implementing its dynamic zero COVID policy of eliminating outbreaks as soon as they emerge and punishing officials if they fail to do so.

The commercial hub Shanghai, which has yet to fully recover from the harsh two-month lockdown in spring and is still reporting daily sporadic cases, said on Monday it plans to hold mass testing in many of its 16 districts and in some smaller areas where new infections had been reported recently, after similar testing last week.

“There is still an epidemic risk at the community level so far,” the city government said in a statement.

Shanghai reported more than a dozen new cases but none was found outside quarantined areas, local government data showed on Monday.

“I’m speechless,” said a Shanghai resident surnamed Wang, already subject to testing every weekend at her residential compound. “It sounds like a waste of resources that doesn’t address the real problem.”

The northern city of Tianjin, which launched multiple rounds of mass testing in recent months to curb earlier outbreaks, said on Monday it is again testing its more than 12 million residents, after two local infections were found.

In the central Chinese city of Zhumadian, lockdowns for more than a million people in two towns under its jurisdiction are extended for a few days until Tuesday. Temporary lockdowns for over 3 million in four other towns have been extended to Monday. Zhumadian continues to report dozens of cases daily despite curbs last week.

The capital Beijing, which reported zero local infections during July 11-17, closed up a residential compound on Monday as authorities proceeded to check on two suspected infections.

‘NO HUMANITY’

Authorities in the southern region of Guangxi said late on Sunday they removed two officials in the city of Beihai from their jobs for acting poorly in their COVID response.

The city of Beihai, with a population of 1.9 million and currently clocking over 500 infections, has launched multiple rounds of mass testing and locked down some areas.

As of Sunday, over 2,000 tourists were stuck in the city.

In the southern city of Guangzhou, COVID control staffers broke down the locks of apartment doors without residents’ consent, stirring an outcry on social media over the weekend.

Authorities in one district in Guangzhou on Monday apologised to residents.

The issue was among the top 10 list of topics trending on China’s Twitter-like social media Weibo.

“It’s too horrifying, too ridiculous,” wrote a Weibo user. “No humanity, no law.”

(Reporting by Roxanne Liu, Brenda Goh, Ryan Woo and Shanghai newsroom; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Jacqueline Wong)

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BANGKOK (AP) — Cybersecurity researchers say that Thai activists involved in the country’s pro-democracy protests had their cell phones or other devices infected and attacked with government-sponsored spyware.

Investigators of the cybersecurity research groups Citizen Lab and iLaw found that at least 30 individuals — including activists, scholars and people working with civil society groups — were targeted for surveillance with Pegasus, a spyware produced by Israeli-based cybersecurity company NSO Group.

Those whose devices were attacked were either involved in the pro-democracy protests that took place between 2020 and 2021, or were publicly critical of the Thai monarchy. The two groups said lawyers who defended the activists also were under such digital surveillance.

The Pegasus spyware is known for “zero-click exploits” which means it can be installed remotely onto a target’s phone, without the target having to click any links or download software.

NSO Group’s products, including the Pegasus software, are typically licensed only to government intelligence and law enforcement agencies to investigate terrorism and serious crime, according to the company’s website.

The company has defended its business in the face of multiple legal challenges, saying its decisions on sales undergo a rigorous ethical vetting process.

The reports by Citizen Lab and iLaw do not accuse any specific government actor but say the use of Pegasus indicates the presence of a government operator.

The attacks on the individuals’ devices spanned from Oct. 2020 to Nov. 2021, a timing “highly relevant to specific Thai political events” since they took place over the period of time when pro-democracy protests erupted across the country.

Thailand’s student-led pro-democracy movement ramped up activities in 2020, largely in reaction to the continuing influence of the military in government and hyper-royalist sentiment.

The movement was able to attract crowds of as many as 20,000-30,000 people in Bangkok in 2020 and had followings in major cities and universities.

The army in 2014 overthrew an elected government, and Prayuth Chan-ocha, the coup leader, was named prime minister after a 2019 general election put in power a military-backed political party.

“There is longstanding evidence showing Pegasus presence in Thailand, indicating that the government would likely have had access to Pegasus during the period in question,” researchers said in the report.

The over 30 individuals targeted were also “of intense interest to the Thai government.”

The victims targeted and the timing of the attacks reflect information that would be easy to obtain by Thai authorities, the researchers said.

“The findings included in this report suggest that NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware was used as part of these efforts to suppress Thai calls for democratic reforms,” Citizen Lab concluded.

Protesters have campaigned for Prayuth and his government to step down and demanded reforms to make the monarchy more accountable and to amend the constitution to make it more democratic.

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By Kirsty Needham

SUVA (Reuters) -Pacific island nations, courted by China and the United States, put the superpowers on notice, telling the world’s two biggest carbon emitters to take more action on climate change while pledging unity in the face of a growing geopolitical contest.

Leaders at a four-day summit of the Pacific Islands Forum, meeting in Fiji’s capital Suva, bristled at a Chinese attempt to split some of the nations off into a trade and security agreement, while Washington pledged more financial and diplomatic engagement.

The exclusive economic zones of the 17 forum members span 30 million square km (10 million square miles) of ocean – providing half the world’s tuna, the most-eaten fish. The nations are also feeling some of the severest effects of climate change as rising seas inundate lower-lying areas.

At the summit that ended on Thursday, leaders adopted language several members have used in declaring a climate emergency, saying this was supported not only by science but by people’s daily lives in the Pacific.

A communique, yet to be released, shows the nations focussed on the next United Nations climate conference, COP27. They will push for a doubling of climate finance to flow from big emitters to developing nations within two years, money they say is needed to adapt to rising sea levels and worsening storms.

The communique, seen by Reuters, also calls for meaningful progress at COP27 on financing for the “loss and damage” to vulnerable societies that cannot adapt and will need to relocate communities – a battle lost at last year’s global climate talks.

“What matters most to us is we secure bold commitments from all countries at COP27 to phase out coal and other fossil fuels and step up finance to the most vulnerable nations and advance causes like ‘loss and damage’ that matter dearly to the most at-risk island communities,” Fiji’s President Frank Bainimarama told reporters.

    “We simply cannot settle for any less than the survival of every Pacific island country,” said Bainimarama, the forum’s chairman.

Tuvalu’s Foreign Minister Simon Kofe, who literally made waves at the last global climate conference by standing knee-deep in seawater to show what his country faces, told Reuters: “There is technology available to protect the islands and raise the islands and that is what we are seeking. It is very costly.”

As the Pacific summit was ending, Australian coal-mining stocks soared on expectations China could resume imports after a two-year political dispute halted coal shipments to the world’s biggest coal burner from its second-biggest exporter.

    In contrast to the market’s bullishness, leaders in the forum’s thatched-roof headquarters discussed how to deal with the statehood of people whose nation has sunk in rising seas, or rights to fishing grounds defined by their distance from a landmass that may disappear.

‘SPLINTERING REGIONALISM’

The communique cites an urgent need for assistance on debt vulnerability and the rising cost of food amid the pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

    In a video address to the forum, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris pledged to triple funding to Pacific islands over a decade under a fisheries treaty, and open more embassies.

    Pacific leaders at times showed irritation at the global focus on the contest between the Washington and Beijing over their region.

    Australia, in tune, said less about security and pledged greater support for the climate change agenda of its neighbours, although maritime surveillance announcements to protect sustainable fishing hinted at its core anxiety.

    “It’s harder for countries that are responsible for most of the illegal fishing then to argue they are going to support the region to stop illegal fishing,” Australia’s Pacific Minister Pat Conroy said in an interview, referring to China.

Australian officials privately say they do not want security choices in the region driven by economic ties to China, and although Pacific islands are sophisticated actors, they need funding support because many have historical debts to Beijing.

    Fiji, for example, has taken no loans from China since 2012 but continues to service export-import bank loans for Chinese infrastructure projects that will cost the government FJ$40 million ($18 million) this year, budget documents show.

    Australian Strategic Policy Institute analyst Michael Shoebridge said Beijing has a record of “splintering regionalism”, drawing a parallel between its recent Pacific diplomacy and a platform it created a decade ago to engage with European countries and bypass the European Union.

Some leaders said in interviews that China provided economic opportunities that small island economies could not ignore, although they agreed to work through the forum to stay unified in their response to great power competition, particularly on security, after disquiet that Beijing struck a security deal in April with the Solomon Islands.

   The forum’s secretary-general openly criticised China’s bid to have around half the forum members sign a deal on trade and security in May that would exclude members with ties to Taiwan and exclude Australia and New Zealand. Leaders at the summit said it had been rushed without consultation.

    China’s embassy in Fiji responded on Twitter on Saturday, saying Beijing had prepared and presented the outcome document to Pacific islands a month ahead of a meeting of foreign ministers. Beijing has created a new platform for cooperation with Pacific island countries through an annual meeting with its foreign minister, it said.

($1 = 2.2578 Fiji dollars)

(Reporting by Kirsty Needham in Suva; Editing by William Mallard)

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KYIV (Reuters) -Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy issued executive orders late on Sunday sacking the head of Ukraine’s powerful domestic security agency, the SBU, and the prosecutor general.

The orders dismissing SBU chief Ivan Bakanov, a childhood friend of Zelenskiy, and Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova, who led the effort to prosecute Russian war crimes in Ukraine, were published on the president’s official website.

In a separate Telegram post, Zelenskiy said he had fired the top officials because many cases had come to light of members of their agencies collaborating with Russia.

He said 651 treason and collaboration cases had been opened against prosecutorial and law enforcement officials, and that over 60 officials from Bakanov and Venediktova’s agencies were now working against Ukraine in Russian-occupied territories.

“Such an array of crimes against the foundations of the national security of the state … pose very serious questions to the relevant leaders,” Zelenskiy said.

“Each of these questions will receive a proper answer,” he said.

Zelenskiy appointed Oleksiy Symonenko as the new prosecutor general in a separate executive order that was also published on the president’s site.

(Reporting by Max HunderEditing by Gareth Jones and Tom Balmforth)

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