South Korea Stops Decades-Old Propaganda Broadcast Into North
South Korea's presidential office said on Wednesday the radio broadcasts have been suspended 'for some time now,' saying such a move is better than witnessing inter-Korean ties deteriorating. That confirmed a recent report by the 38 North program at the Stimson Center that said that four radio stations believed to have been operated by South Korea's National Intelligence Service went silent in early July.
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Bloomberg
43 minutes ago
- Bloomberg
Malaysia Set to Unveil US Trade Deal After Trump-Anwar Call
Malaysia is set to announce a trade deal Thursday with the US after President Donald Trump and his Malaysian counterpart Anwar Ibrahim spoke by telephone, people familiar with the plan said. Malaysia and the US had discussed a tariff rate below 20%, the people said, asking not to be identified because the talks are private. The call lasted about 20 minutes, they added.
CNN
an hour ago
- CNN
Trump puts 50% tariffs on Brazil and copper while eliminating another tax loophole
President Donald Trump on Wednesday said the White House was 'very busy' crafting its trade policy as the clock ticks down on his self-imposed August 1 deadline. At that point, America could fundamentally reshape the way it does business around the world. Trump signed executive actions on Wednesday imposing a 50% tariff on Brazil, a 50% tariff on certain copper products and suspending a tax perk for all countries that allowed cheap packages to fly into the US duty-free. He also announced in a Truth Social post that his administration has a trade framework in place with Pakistan, although details were thin. Trump said the agreement, if completed, would include developing Pakistan's oil reserves with a yet-to-be-named oil company. And Trump said his administration will meet with a South Korean trade delegation Wednesday afternoon. South Korea has been long expected to be among the next countries in line to hammer out a trade framework with the United States. Taken together, the moves represented a significant expansion of the Trump's administration's trade war, which could increase the prices that US consumers pay on certain goods. Trump had previously threatened to impose the 50% tariff on Brazil effective August 1 in a letter he sent earlier this month to the country's president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. In that letter, Trump threatened the hefty tariff if Brazil did not end its trial against right-wing former president, Jair Bolsonaro. The order that Trump signed on Wednesday, which increases Brazil's tariff by 40 percentage points, effective early next month, accuses the Brazilian government of 'serious human rights abuses that have undermined the rule of law in Brazil.' The new tariff on Brazil appeared to be spurred by non-economic matters. Bolsonaro, who has bragged about his closeness with Trump, is facing trial for allegedly attempting to stage a coup against Lula. Trump has publicly objected to that proceeding, and his order alleged Bolsonaro's prosecution was 'politically motivated.' 'The Order finds that the Government of Brazil's politically motivated persecution, intimidation, harassment, censorship, and prosecution of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and thousands of his supporters are serious human rights abuses that have undermined the rule of law in Brazil,' the order reads. The announcement of the increased tariff rate comes the same day that the United States is sanctioning Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, 12 days after announcing visa restrictions against him and other court officials over Bolsonaro's trial. However, Trump's order appears to have more bark than bite. It exempts most of Brazil's most significant exports to the United States, including orange juice, Embraer aircraft, oil, coal, minerals, various chemicals and Brazil nuts. Coffee, though, will face the higher tariff. Trump has sought other ways to punish Brazil for Bolsonaro's prosecution as well. On Wednesday the US imposed sanctions against Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes for what it considers 'serious human rights violations.' The sanctions come almost two weeks after the US State Department announced visa restrictions for Moraes and other court officials, accusing them of carrying out a 'political witch hunt' against Bolsonaro. In a separate presidential proclamation, Trump imposed 'universal 50% tariffs on imports of semi-finished copper products,' including pipes, wires, and sheets, and 'copper-intensive derivative products,' the White House said in a fact sheet. It characterized the move as critical for US national security, saying that Trump 'is leveling the playing field for U.S. copper businesses to support a strong domestic copper industry.' Those new tariffs will go into effect August 1, and include exceptions for copper products already subject to the president's auto tariffs. Copper is a crucial component in a variety of goods, including electronics, machinery and cars, and tariffs on the source material could make those products more expensive. The US imported $17 billion worth of copper last year, according to US Commerce Department data. Chile was the largest foreign supplier of the metal, shipping $6 billion worth of it to the US last year. Investors and businesses had largely been anticipating a copper tariff, but were uncertain about the scope of the tariffs and which forms of the red metal it would apply to. The tariffs will impact semi-finished copper products like copper pipes and copper-intensive derivate products like cables, the White House said. However, the tariffs will not impact refined copper, a critical input for manufacturing. Copper prices in New York plunged 19% on Wednesday as markets were relieved the White House exempted refined copper. 'This announcement indicates the copper tariffs are much more limited in nature than the market originally understood,' Rob Haworth, senior investment strategist at U.S. Bank Asset Management, said in an email. Copper prices were on pace for the biggest single-day drop on record, according to FactSet. Prices had surged to record highs this year as companies stockpiled copper ahead of Trump's tariffs. Finally, Trump suspended a tax perk for all countries known as the 'de minimis exemption,' which allowed duty-free shipments of goods worth $800 or less. Trump had previously targeted the exemption in the US-China trade war, but the latest move closes the option of back-door shipments through other countries. That will particularly impact e-commerce giants like Shein and Temu. The executive order noted that Americans returning from travel abroad can still bring back up to $200 in personal items or can receive gifts valued at $100 or less duty-free. Customs and Border Protection previously told CNN it currently processes 'nearly 4 million duty-free de minimis shipments a day.' Research indicates that a majority of those shipments come from China and Hong Kong. In total, over the last fiscal year, CBP said 1.36 billion packages came to the US under the de minimis exemption. The Trump administration slashed the de minimis exemption on China in May, cutting the tariff on those cheap packages from 120% to 54% and slashing the rate from 145% to 30% for packages from commercial carriers. As part of Trump's 'Big Beautiful Bill,' the de minimis rule was slated to be repealed for all countries in July 2027, and the bill even established a civil penalty up to $10,000 for more than one violation of the rule. That was expedited with Trump's suspension, which will be effective August 29. This headline and story have been updated with additional developments. CNN's Michael Rios and Jennifer Hansler contributed reporting.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Chinese researchers suggest lasers and sabotage to counter Musk's Starlink satellites
ROME (AP) — Stealth submarines fitted with space-shooting lasers, supply-chain sabotage and custom-built attack satellites armed with ion thrusters. Those are just some of the strategies Chinese scientists have been developing to counter what Beijing sees as a potent threat: Elon Musk' s armada of Starlink communications satellites. Chinese government and military scientists, concerned about Starlink's potential use by adversaries in a military confrontation and for spying, have published dozens of papers in public journals that explore ways to hunt and destroy Musk's satellites, an Associated Press review found. Chinese researchers believe that Starlink — a vast constellation of low-orbit satellites that deliver cheap, fast and ubiquitous connectivity even in remote areas — poses a high risk to the Chinese government and its strategic interests. That fear has mostly been driven by the company's close ties to the U.S. intelligence and defense establishment, as well as its growing global footprint. 'As the United States integrates Starlink technology into military space assets to gain a strategic advantage over its adversaries, other countries increasingly perceive Starlink as a security threat in nuclear, space, and cyber domains,' wrote professors from China's National University of Defense Technology in a 2023 paper. Chinese researchers are not the only ones concerned about Starlink, which has a stranglehold on certain space-based communications. Some traditional U.S. allies are also questioning the wisdom of handing over core communications infrastructure — and a potential trove of data — to a company run by an unpredictable foreign businessman whose allegiances are not always clear. Apprehensions deepened after Russia's 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine made clear the battlefield advantages Starlink satellites could convey and have been exacerbated by Musk's proliferating political interests. Musk pumped tens of millions of dollars into President Donald Trump's reelection effort and emerged, temporarily, as a key adviser and government official. As Musk toys with the idea of starting his own political party, he has also taken an increasing interest in European politics, using his influence to promote an array of hard-right and insurgent figures often at odds with establishment politicians. Musk left the Trump administration in May and within days his relationship with Trump publicly imploded in a feud on social media. SpaceX, the rocket launch and space-based communications company that Musk founded and that operates Starlink, remains inextricably linked with core U.S. government functions. It has won billions in contracts to provide launch services for NASA missions and military satellites, recuperate astronauts stranded at the International Space Station and build a network of spy satellites for the National Reconnaissance Office. Starlink's space dominance has sparked a global scramble to come up with viable alternatives. But its crushing first-mover advantage has given SpaceX near monopoly power, further complicating the currents of business, politics and national security that converge on Musk and his companies. Starlink dominates space Since its first launches in 2019, Starlink has come to account for about two-thirds of all active satellites, according to Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, who writes a newsletter tracking satellite launches. SpaceX operates more than 8,000 active satellites and eventually aims to deploy tens of thousands more. Beijing's tendency to view Starlink as tool of U.S. military power has sharpened its efforts to develop countermeasures — which, if deployed, could increase the risk of collateral damage to other customers as SpaceX expands its global footprint. The same satellites that pass over China also potentially serve Europe, Ukraine, the United States and other geographies as they continue their path around the earth. Starlink says it operates in more than 140 countries, and recently made inroads in Vietnam, Niger, Somalia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Pakistan. In June, Starlink also obtained a license to operate in India, overcoming national security concerns and powerful domestic telecom interests to crack open a tech-savvy market of nearly 1.5 billion people. On the company's own map of coverage, it has very few dead zones beyond those in North Korea, Iran and China. No other country or company is close to catching up with Starlink. Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos has taken aim at rival Musk with Project Kuiper, which launched its first batch of internet satellites into orbit in April. So far Amazon has just 78 satellites in orbit, with 3,232 planned, according to McDowell, and London-based Eutelstat OneWeb has around 650 satellites in orbit, a fraction of the fleet it had initially planned. The European Union is spending billions to develop its own satellite array — called the IRIS2 initiative — but remains woefully behind. EU officials have had to lobby their own member states not to sign contracts with Starlink while it gets up and running. 'We are allies with the United States of America, but we need to have our strategic autonomy,' said Christophe Grudler, a French member of the European Parliament who led legislative work on IRIS2. 'The risk is not having our destiny in our own hands.' China has been public about its ambition to build its own version of Starlink to meet both domestic national security needs and compete with Starlink in foreign markets. In 2021, Beijing established the state-owned China SatNet company and tasked it with launching a megaconstellation with military capabilities, known as Guowang. In December, the company launched its first operational satellites, and now has 60 of a planned 13,000 in orbit, according to McDowell. Qianfan, a company backed by the Shanghai government, has launched 90 satellites out of some 15,000 planned. The Brazilian government in November announced a deal with Qianfan, after Musk had a scorching public fight with a Brazilian judge investigating X, who also froze Space X's bank accounts in the country. Qianfan is also targeting customers in Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Oman, Pakistan and Uzbekistan and has ambitions to expand across the African continent, according to a slide presented at a space industry conference last year and published by the China Space Monitor. Russia's invasion of Ukraine supercharges concerns Concerns about Starlink's supremacy were supercharged by Russia's 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The war was a turning point in strategic thinking about Starlink and similar systems. Ukraine used the Starlink network to facilitate battlefield communications and power fighter and reconnaissance drones, providing a decisive ground-game advantage. At the same time, access to the satellites was initially controlled by a single man, Musk, who can — and did — interrupt critical services, refusing, for example, to extend coverage to support a Ukrainian counterattack in Russia-occupied Crimea. U.S.-led sanctions against Moscow after the full-scale invasion also curtailed the availability of Western technology in Russia, underscoring the geopolitical risks inherent in relying on foreign actors for access to critical infrastructure. 'Ukraine was a warning shot for the rest of us,' said Nitin Pai, co-founder and director of the Takshashila Institution, a public policy research center based in Bangalore, India. 'For the last 20 years, we were quite aware of the fact that giving important government contracts to Chinese companies is risky because Chinese companies operate as appendages of the Chinese Communist Party. Therefore, it's a risk because the Chinese Communist Party can use technology as a lever against you. Now it's no different with the Americans.' Nearly all of the 64 papers about Starlink reviewed by AP in Chinese journals were published after the conflict started. Assessing Starlink's capabilities and vulnerabilities Starlink's omnipresence and potential military applications have unnerved Beijing and spurred the nation's scientists to action. In paper after paper, researchers painstakingly assessed the capabilities and vulnerabilities of a network that they clearly perceive as menacing and strove to understand what China might learn — and emulate — from Musk's company as Beijing works to develop a similar satellite system. Though Starlink does not operate in China, Musk's satellites nonetheless can sweep over Chinese territory. Researchers from China's National Defense University in 2023 simulated Starlink's coverage of key geographies, including Beijing, Taiwan, and the polar regions, and determined that Starlink can achieve round-the-clock coverage of Beijing. 'The Starlink constellation coverage capacity of all regions in the world is improving steadily and in high speed,' they concluded. In another paper — this one published by the government-backed China Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team — researchers mapped out vulnerabilities in Starlink's supply chain. 'The company has more than 140 first-tier suppliers and a large number of second-tier and third-tier suppliers downstream,' they wrote in a 2023 paper. 'The supervision for cybersecurity is limited.' Engineers from the People's Liberation Army, in another 2023 paper, suggested creating a fleet of satellites to tail Starlink satellites, collecting signals and potentially using corrosive materials to damage their batteries or ion thrusters to interfere with their solar panels. Other Chinese academics have encouraged Beijing to use global regulations and diplomacy to contain Musk, even as the nation's engineers have continued to elaborate active countermeasures: Deploy small optical telescopes already in commercial production to monitor Starlink arrays. Concoct deep fakes to create fictitious targets. Shoot powerful lasers to burn Musk's equipment. Some U.S. analysts say Beijing's fears may be overblown, but such assessments appear to have done little to cool domestic debate. One Chinese paper was titled, simply: 'Watch out for that Starlink.' ___ Chen reported from Washington. ___ Contact AP's global investigative team at Investigative@ or Erika Kinetz And Elsie Chen, The Associated Press
