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☆ Israeli Airstrikes Kill Three Palestinian Commanders in Gaza
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Dov Lieber | Aaron Boxerman | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The Israeli military said the airstrikes were part of a new operation against senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad commanders. Photo: mohammed abed/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesTEL AVIV—Three Palestinian militant commanders were killed Tuesday in targeted Israeli bombings in the Gaza Strip that left a total of at least 12 dead and 20 injured, including civilians, said Israeli military and Palestinian health officials. The Israeli military said the airstrikes on the Palestinian enclave were part of a new operation against senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad commanders who it blames for recent rocket fire into Israel, coordinating militant activities in the occupied West Bank and acquiring money and guns.

☆ An A.F.P. journalist was killed by rocket fire near the intense fighting in the area around Bakhmut.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Anushka Patil | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

A video journalist working for Agence France-Presse, the French news agency, was killed by rocket fire near the town of Chasiv Yar in eastern Ukraine, A.F.P. Some of the heaviest battles of the war are being fought in and around the nearby city of Bakhmut. The journalist, Arman Soldin, 32, and four colleagues were with Ukrainian soldiers when they came under a Grad rocket attack on Tuesday afternoon, the agency said. Mr. Soldin is the 17th journalist to be killed in Ukraine since 2022, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. His death came just two weeks after a Ukrainian journalist was killed and an Italian journalist injured in an attack on their way to the city of Kherson in southern Ukraine.

Capvision said in a statement soon after the broadcast that it would resolutely abide by national security rules. The CCTV report was the first clear indication of the national security scope of recent police action against several consulting firms. "The state security organ and other authorities will intensify law enforcement against activities that endanger national security, such as illegal consulting," the state-owned Global Times said. The revisions will see all documents, data, materials and items "related to national security and interests" given the same protection as state secrets. The law does not define China's national security or interests.

☆ Arman Soldin: AFP journalist killed in rocket fire near eastern Ukraine's Bakhmut
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Helen Regan | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —A French journalist working for the international news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP) was killed by rocket fire near the embattled city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine on Tuesday. “We are devastated to learn of the death of AFP video journalist Arman Soldin in eastern Ukraine today,” AFP said. Their reporting team was with Ukrainian soldiers when they came under fire around 4:30pm local time on Tuesday, according to AFP. “The whole agency is devastated by the loss of Arman,” said Fabrice Fries, CEO of AFP, according to the news agency. In their obituary, AFP wrote that Soldin celebrated his 32nd birthday on March 21 from Kramatorsk in eastern Ukraine.

BEIJING, May 8 (Reuters) - The Global Times, a hawkish Chinese state media tabloid, on Monday criticised a letter of protest sent to it by South Korea's embassy in China, the latest public spat amid worsening ties between the Asian neighbours. The South Korean embassy "expressed strong regret over a series of unreasonable slanderous articles" from the Global Times, in a letter of protest published Friday on its website. In its editorial, the Global Times slammed the embassy's "brutal interference in (its) independent reporting". South Korea's embassy in China did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In a similar incident last December, China's ambassador in South Korea criticised Korean media for stoking anti-China sentiment.

☆ U.S. Think Tank Reports Prompted Beijing to Put a Lid on Chinese Data
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-07 | by ( Lingling Wei | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Officials in Beijing have become increasingly concerned about data security as a result of Western online sleuthing. Photo: Wang Zhao/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesA recent campaign to restrict overseas access to China-based data sources was partly triggered by a drumbeat of U.S. think tank reports on sensitive Chinese practices that alarmed Beijing, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter. Increasingly worried about perceived Western threats, Beijing in recent weeks expanded an anti-espionage law and stepped up pressure on foreign companies specializing in collecting information, such as auditors, management consultants and law firms. In addition, access to Chinese databases including Shanghai-based Wind Information has tightened for foreign think tanks, research firms and other nonfinancial entities.

☆ Syria Readmitted to Arab League, Bringing Assad Back Into the Fold
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-07 | by ( Summer Said | Benoit Faucon | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Arab League foreign ministers at an emergency meeting in Cairo on Sunday. Photo: khaled desouki/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesArab leaders agreed to bring Syria back into the Arab League after more than a decade of isolation, complicating American efforts to isolate President Bashar al-Assad and signaling a waning of U.S. influence in the Middle East. In an emergency meeting in Cairo, the group voted to immediately readmit Syria to the group of 22 Arab nations that coordinate on regional matters. While many Arab officials remain disdainful of Mr. Assad, they say international policies isolating Syria have proven to be counterproductive over time, strengthening the influence of Iran, which backs Syria.

Prince Albert of Monaco said in an interview with People magazine that he and his wife, Charlene, would be attending. King Felipe VI of Spain, who ascended to the throne in 2014 after his father’s abdication, will attend, according to the Spanish news media. Crown Prince Fumihito of Japan and Crown Princess Kiko, on behalf of Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako, will attend, according to the Japanese news media. Credit... Clodagh Kilcoyne/ReutersSeveral members of Britain’s government will attend, as will about 100 heads of state from around the world, according to Buckingham Palace. British RoyalsImage Prince Harry, center, will be present at the coronation, though his wife, Meghan, and their children, will remain in California.

☆ Sudan Power Battle Reignites Violence in Restive Darfur
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Nicholas Bariyo | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Brick houses in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, where clashes have been most intense. Photo: -/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesThe battle for power between Sudan’s top two generals has reignited intercommunal violence in the country’s Darfur region, a gold-rich area still scarred by what is widely considered the first genocide of the 21st century. The World Health Organization says at least 221 people have been killed in West Darfur, near Sudan’s border with Chad, since fighting erupted on April 15 between the military, led by Lt. Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the country’s de facto head of state, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, commanded by Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo , Gen. Burhan’s deputy.

☆ South Korean Prosecutor Calls for Crypto Entrepreneur Do Kwon to Face Charges in Home Country
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Jiyoung Sohn | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Crypto entrepreneur Do Kwon has been detained in Montenegro since March. Photo: stringer/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesSEOUL—The South Korean prosecutor leading the investigation into crypto entrepreneur Do Kwon said he believes extraditing him to his native country would be the best way to bring justice to victims of the TerraUSD cryptocurrency crash, which wiped out some $40 billion from digital currency markets. South Korea is vying with U.S. prosecutors to extradite Mr. Kwon from Montenegro, where he has been detained since March, and charge him in connection with the failed TerraUSD and Luna cryptocurrencies. Mr. Kwon, who is a South Korean citizen, was the co-founder of Terraform Labs, the company behind the two failed cryptocurrencies.

☆ Singapore’s Moment Is Here. Will It Last?
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Nathaniel Taplin | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Private rental costs in Singapore rose 30% in 2022, according to official data. Photo: roslan rahman/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesSingapore, Hong Kong’s longtime rival, is having a moment as Hong Kong struggles with the fallout from its political crackdown and China sends decidedly mixed signals on its own openness to foreign capital. The Southeast Asian city-state is also dealing with the sudden downsides of success: namely an epic surge in housing prices. To keep the march it has stolen on Hong Kong it will need to tame its housing market—and demonstrate that it truly is neutral territory in the intensifying competition between the U.S. and China.

☆ Maersk Earnings Weighed Down by Sharp Drop in Freight Rates and Volumes
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Costas Paris | Dominic Chopping | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The container ship Maersk Batam is loaded in the Port of Southampton, on the south coast of England. Photo: adrian dennis/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesA.P. Moller-Maersk on Thursday posted a sharp drop in first-quarter net profit as inventory corrections in Western economies sent shipping demand falling, pushing freight rates and volumes lower. The Danish shipping giant said it expects the destocking effort, the result of an enormous inventory buildup last year that left retailers swamped with goods, to wind down by the end of the second quarter but that trade volumes are still contracting.

☆ Foreign Firms in China Squeezed by U.S. Disclosure Demands, Beijing’s Security Clampdown
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Elaine Yu | Dan Strumpf | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Mintz Group’s Beijing office was raided by authorities, who detained five of the company’s workers. Photo: greg baker/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesHONG KONG—Foreign companies in China are walking a tightrope between their need for business intelligence to comply with proliferating U.S. sanctions and mounting concerns about the risks of carrying out the due diligence required for business on the ground. Authorities recently questioned staff at consulting firm Bain & Co.’s Shanghai office and detained the Beijing-based workers for U.S. due-diligence company Mintz Group. The news has put companies that conduct due diligence and business intelligence in China on heightened alert, with details about the visits scant and uncertainty swirling around what triggered them.

☆ Canada Passes Law Aimed at Exposing Forced Labor in Supply Chains
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Richard Vanderford | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Canada now joins a growing number of countries trying to stamp out the sale of goods made with forced labor. Photo: geoff robins/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesCanada will take on forced labor with a new law requiring companies to report on their efforts to stop tainted goods from entering their supply chains. Canada’s House of Commons on Wednesday approved legislation known as Bill S-211 that will go into effect in January and mandate large companies to report on parts of their supply chains where forced labor might be occurring. The legislation also will require companies to report their due-diligence procedures connected to forced labor.

☆ Qualcomm Hit by Smartphone Demand Woes
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Asa Fitch | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Qualcomm has been whipsawed in recent quarters by flagging handset sales. Photo: josep lago/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesMobile-phone chip maker Qualcomm gave a gloomy sales outlook as it signaled the market for smartphones was more turbulent than expected. Qualcomm, which sells communication and data-processing chips crucial in phones from Apple and Samsung , has been whipsawed in recent quarters by flagging handset sales even as it sees growth in newer markets for its chips, including the automotive industry.

☆ The Gas-Guzzler Business is Still Trucking
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Stephen Wilmot | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

A Ford F-150 under production at the company’s plant in Dearborn, Michigan. Photo: jeff kowalsky/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesDetroit has a rocky road ahead, but it also has cash to navigate it. First-quarter results from General Motors, Ford and Chrysler-owner Stellantis beat expectations across the board, but investors weren’t impressed. They are more focused on Tesla ’s price war in electric vehicles and the U.S. Federal Reserve’s rate increases, which are pushing up consumers’ monthly vehicle payments.

The fighting in Sudan has frozen trade of raw gum arabic both within the country and across its borders. Photo: ashraf shazly/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesThe conflict in Sudan has disrupted the supply of a little-known but crucial ingredient in soft drinks, chocolate bars, red wine and many other products, sparking concerns over shortages later in the year. The deadly power struggle between the East African nation’s top generals has claimed over 500 lives, left thousands injured and displaced many more. A lesser consequence of the fighting has been to choke the supply of gum arabic—80% of which is produced by Sudan’s acacia trees.

Solomon Islands police receiving training from a Chinese police liaison team. Photo: handout/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesLast year, more than two dozen police officers from the Solomon Islands traveled to China, where they visited local police stations and were trained in hand-to-hand combat, guarding VIPs and managing security at large events. While the officers were overseas, Australia—a U.S. ally that anchors Washington’s strategy to counter China in the Pacific—donated 13 vehicles and 60 rifles to the Solomon Islands police and said it would provide training to help officers protect diplomats, politicians and visiting dignitaries.

☆ Car Insurance Rates Are Going Up Again
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Leslie Scism | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The rate increase comes amid inflation, higher claims costs and rising prices for auto parts, insurers say. Photo: patrick t. fallon/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesAllstate and Progressive , two of the nation’s biggest car insurers, say inflation continues to hurt their auto-insurance businesses, and are pushing ahead with additional premium-rate increases for vehicle owners. The two giants, and many other big car insurers, say higher claims costs continue to dent their results, despite slowing inflation. Prices continue to rise for auto parts, they say, and vehicles are taking longer to be repaired than in past years due to shortages of workers. Those delays, in turn, lead to extended rental-car use by policyholders, at the insurers’ expense.

☆ With Fed Set to Raise Rates, Executives Watch Consumers for Signs of Stress
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Jennifer Williams-Alvarez | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The Fed is on track to increase rates a quarter point while deliberating if that will be enough to pause the fastest rate-raising cycle in decades. Photo: olivier douliery/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesExecutives are watching the Federal Reserve’s latest policy meeting for clues on its inflation-fighting campaign and the potential for a so-called hard landing that could cramp consumer spending on everything from airline tickets and cars to furniture and snacks. The Fed this week is on track to increase interest rates by a quarter percentage point while deliberating whether that will be enough to then pause the fastest rate-raising cycle in four decades. The central bank’s benchmark rate stands at a range between 4.75% and 5%, and another quarter-point increase at the meeting that concludes Wednesday would lift it to a 16-year high.

☆ FIFA President Threatens Not to Broadcast Women’s World Cup in Europe
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Rachel Bachman | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

‘To be very clear, it is our moral and legal obligation not to undersell the FIFA Women’s World Cup,’ FIFA president Gianni Infantino said. Photo: fabrice coffrini/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesFor much of the 32-year existence of the Women’s World Cup, FIFA distributed the broadcast rights to the event like a “buy one, get one free” promotion: If broadcasters bought the rights for the men’s World Cup, they also got the rights to the Women’s World Cup. After the 2019 Women’s World Cup drew more than 1 billion global viewers, FIFA began a years-long transition to charging broadcasters a separate fee for the women’s tournament, in line with the event’s audiences.

Khader Adnan, who died Tuesday, had been detained by Israel 10 times and on hunger strike six times, according to Palestinian authorities. Photo: saif dahlah/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesTEL AVIV—Militants in Gaza fired a barrage of rockets at Israel on Tuesday after the death of a Palestinian on hunger strike in Israeli custody, raising fears of an escalation amid a particularly violent period between the two sides. Khader Adnan, a prominent member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group, was detained in early February on charges of supporting terrorism and incitement. He went on hunger strike soon after and refused medical testing and treatment. He died early Tuesday.

Khader Adnan in the village of Arraba in the West Bank in 2012. Photo: saif dahlah/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesTEL AVIV—A Palestinian prisoner accused of terrorism died in an Israeli prison early Tuesday after a nearly three-month hunger strike, according to Israel’s prison services, heightening tensions amid a particularly violent period between the two sides. Soon after Khader Adnan, who was detained in early February on charges of supporting terrorism and incitement, died, militants in Gaza fired three rockets and one mortar into southern Israel.

☆ U.S. Covid Vaccine Mandates to End May 11 for Federal Workers, Others
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Catherine Lucey | Sabrina Siddiqui | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The White House said Monday that ‘vaccination remains one of the most important tools in advancing the health and safety of employees.’ Photo: Frederic J. Brown/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesWASHINGTON—The White House plans to end the Covid-19 vaccine requirements for federal workers, federal contractors and international air travelers on May 11, as the pandemic public health emergency ends. The administration announced the policy plans Monday, more than three years since the start of the pandemic that has claimed over 1.1 million lives in the U.S. The White House also said that the process has also begun to end the vaccination requirements for Head Start school workers and at certain healthcare facilities.

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