Category World News

Who is Jimmy Lai, Hong Kong’s jailed media tycoon?

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After nearly two years of trial, the national security trial for Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai is now over.

Watchers closely monitor the outcome of the case against Lai, 77, as a sign of the financial hub’s rule of law and freedoms, with the attention of world leaders and global rights organizations.

The trial’s closing arguments were held on Thursday following repeated delays caused by bad weather and concerns for Lai’s health, with a later judgment date being set.

What information is necessary here:

Jimmy Lai, who is he?

Lai was well-known for being one of Hong Kong’s most well-known rags-to-riches stories long before his trial for national security.

In the 1950s, he fled China and emigrated to then-British Hong Kong, where he established a business empire.

The now-closed pro-democracy tabloid Apple Daily was one of his business interests.

Lai was one of the few business leaders in Hong Kong to publicly support the city’s democratic movement and criticize the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which seized control of the city in 1997.

Lai’s activism, according to Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute in the UK.

Jimmy Lai stands out from Beijing’s point of view because he is the most well-known and persistent tycoon who has used his wealth to support the Hong Kong democracy movement and thus challenges the CCP’s authority, Tsang told Al Jazeera.

According to Tsang, “this makes Lai a traitor who deserves severe punishment,” adding that the Chinese authorities demand that Lai be publicly criticized in order to “spy out others from following the same path.”

What fees are there?

Soon after Beijing enacted a national security law criminalizing secession, subversion, terrorism, and collusion with foreign forces, Lai was detained in August 2020.

Court proceedings finally started in December of this year, 2023, after numerous delays before the trial began.

According to a colonial-era statute, Lai is accused of conspiring with foreign forces on two counts under Beijing’s revised national security law and one count of sedition.

Prosecutors have accused Lai of encouraging residents of Hong Kong to march alongside the city’s anti-government demonstrations in 2019 and urging the United States and other foreign nations to impose sanctions on Hong Kong and Chinese governments.

Lai could face life in prison if found guilty under the national security law.

Lai has entered a not-guilty plea after already being found guilty of several crimes in connection with unauthorised assembly and fraud.

What causes controversy in his trial?

UN observers and Western governments have labeled the allegations against Lai as politically motivated.

According to Eric Yan-ho Lai, a research fellow at the Georgetown Center for Asian Law in Washington, DC, there have also been numerous irregularities throughout his prosecution.

According to Lai, who is not related, “He has been placed in solitary confinement and is suffering from arbitrarily detained” citing findings from the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.

Before his trial started, analysts saw that he had been convicted of numerous counts of public order and commercial fraud.

After Beijing overrode the Hong Kong courts on national security grounds, the tycoon was also denied access to Timothy Owen, his lawyer of choice, in London.

Hong Kong’s words: what?

The Hong Kong government criticized the trial as a “smear campaign” and claimed that Lai’s case is being handled “severally on the basis of evidence and in accordance with the law.”

The government has also warned that commenting on the case might be seen as “an attempt to interfere with the court to exercise judicial power independently” and as “constitute perverting the court of justice”.

After the 2019 protests turned violent, Hong Kong’s authorities have also repeatedly criticized the national security law, arguing that it was required to bring peace and stability back to the former British colony.

When will the verdict be announced?

Although the court has not yet announced its decision, it may take weeks or even months.

Three national security judges appointed by Hong Kong’s chief executive, who is in charge of Beijing, will decide Lai’s guilt or innocence.

Tsang claimed that he was “99.99 percent certain” that Lai will be found guilty in all counts.

Given Lai’s prominence and increased government influence on Hong Kong’s judicial system, his opinion is shared by many observers.

According to the US consulate in Hong Kong, since June 30th, 207 people have been detained for national security offenses, 147 have been officially charged with crimes, and 108 have been found guilty.

US auditing Chinese involvement in cloud services, defence chief says

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According to Washington’s defense chief, the US military has begun a review of Chinese nationals’ involvement in managing sensitive cloud services.

Pete Hegseth, the US’s secretary of defense, announced on Wednesday that he had ordered an audit of Microsoft’s use of Chinese nationals to check whether any security breaches had occurred.

Hegseth stated in a video statement that “the use of Chinese nationals to service Department of Defense cloud environments is over.”

We’ve requested a third-party audit of Microsoft’s digital escort program, including the code and the submissions made by Chinese nationals, and have written a formal letter of concern to Microsoft documenting this breach of trust.

“We weren’t aware of anything that was written in the code,” the question remains. Hegseth continued, “We are going to find out.”

Hegseth added that he had also instructed software providers to look into and stop “any Chinese involvement with DOD systems.”

Hegseth’s order comes after a ProPublica investigation in July revealed that Microsoft used contractors from other countries to maintain the Defense Department’s cloud systems in collaboration with US-based “digital escorts” in conjunction with US-based “digital escorts.”

Following the report, Microsoft announced that it would no longer support the military with technicians from China.

Following the publication of the ProPublica report, Hegseth declared that it was “common sense” to exclude Chinese nationals from sensitive systems.

Australia, Canada, Philippine ships hold drills in tense South China Sea

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Three warships and military vehicles were used in air defense exercises by Australia, Canada, and the Philippines off a disputed shoal in the South China Sea, which Beijing had claimed.

The Philippine military said on Thursday that the joint naval exercises east of the Scarborough Shoal, which are a staging area for clashes with Chinese vessels, were aimed at “coordinated defensive measures” to counteract aerial threats.

The Philippines’ ship Jose Rizal, Australia’s HMAS Brisbane, and Canada’s HMCS Ville de Quot, which sails from a western Philippine province of Palawan, were also present, according to the military. The drills also confirmed “the Philippines’ commitment to advance defense cooperation with like-minded nations.”

In the South China Sea, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, and Taiwan both claim the Scarborough Shoal and other islands, islets, and reefs, while Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, and Taiwan also have overlapping claims.

Beijing has repeatedly warned that it will defend the shoal and outlying waters, which it claims are its own territory, despite China’s press release stating that it did not immediately make any comment on the drills.

At least three warplanes and at least one heavy-lift military helicopter were captured in video and photos that the Philippine military made available.

More than 3, 600 military personnel participated in 15 days of live-fire drills and manoeuvres that were scheduled to end on Friday, marking the final stages of Australia’s largest military exercises with the Philippines, known as Exercise ALON 2025.

The exercises, according to Australian Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Raven, were “the largest airlift of Australian combat forces since the 1999 East Timor mission,” when Australia was in charge of a multinational peacekeeping force in response to a security and humanitarian crisis, according to the Philippines Daily Inquirer.

According to the Inquirer, this demonstrates that we can deploy a combat-ready and combat-capable force in the Indo-Pacific to support a security partner like the Philippines.

The Scarborough Shoal, one of China’s most dangerous regions, has been closely guarded by its forces, and on August 11 they accidentally collided with a Chinese navy ship and a Chinese coastguard ship as they attempted to block a Philippine coastguard ship close to the shoal.

The first indication that the severely damaged ship made it back to port following the collision, which was captured on camera by the Philippines, was reported by the Reuters news agency on Wednesday.

The vessel is seen alongside a dry dock at the Yulin naval base near Sanya, a city on Hainan, with a crushed bow flanked by tugs, according to satellite images provided by Maxar Technologies to Reuters.

Beijing has accused Philippine vessels of carrying out “dangerous manoeuvres” without making any direct comments about the collision, despite Chinese officials’ refusal to comment on it.

There has never been a formalized system of sovereignty over the Scarborough Shoal.

Beijing’s expansive claims to the entire maritime region were rejected by a landmark South China Sea decision by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, but the court was not given the task of establishing sovereignty over particular features.

The court also ruled that China’s shoal-blocking violated international law, and that it was a major fishing destination for the region.

How rare earth shortages are stalling India’s burgeoning EV sector

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India’s best-selling electric scooter, the Chetak from Bajaj Auto, experienced a significant speed bump in July. Production plans were hampered by a shortage of rare earth metals, forcing the company to almost half-measure its output.

Due to rare earth shortages, Bajaj only produced 10, 824 Chetak units in July, compared to 20, 384 during the same time last year.

Rakesh Sharma, executive director of Bajaj Auto, stated to Al Jazeera that the supply situation for rare earth magnets had contributed to the possibility of a sharp decline in production in July.

According to Sharma, the business has since quickly redesigned some motors to use light, rare-earth magnets, and has been overhauling supply chains to meet its needs.

“These adjustments helped us recover nearly half of our anticipated two-wheel electric output for July.” In August and September, we anticipate a production increase of about 60%.

After China imposed restrictions on its rare earth exports on April 4, two days after President Donald Trump announced reciprocal tariffs on April 2, Bajaj is facing an industry-wide shortage. Since then, no shipment has arrived in India, putting the fate of the automotive and other industries.

The Federation of Automobile Dealers Association (FADA), which has about 15, 000 auto retailers as members, presidents Vigneshwar Chittur Selvakumar and Vigneshwar Chittur Selvakumar, expresses concern over how the automobile industry’s shortages “may have a drastic impact on the industry.”

Any decline in production will have a negative impact on our business because we control about 80% of the vehicle sales, Vigneshwar said.

A total of 17 metallic elements, including dysprosium, terbium, europium, samarium, and gadolinium, are found in abundance in China, which has the largest reserves of rare earth elements in the world, which is estimated to be 44 million tonnes, and which accounts for 90% of the rare earth elements processing capacity.

The metals are also used in smartphones, computer screens, and other electronic devices besides EVs. They are also necessary for medical devices like magnetic resonance imaging systems, as well as defense-related devices like radar and guidance systems.

Aman Bir Singh, an EV consultant, told Al Jazeera, “The rare earth elements help to make strong magnets that are widely used in electric vehicles… to maintain a stable magnetic field. “Internal combustion engines (ICE) or hybrid vehicles that run on gasoline, diesel, and wind turbines are also used, but in a very small quantity, and the current shortage doesn’t impact them as much,” they say.

The shortage comes just as the EV market in India experienced its first-ever sales surpassing $2 million in 2024. Sales of 1. 6 million vehicles increased by 24 percent in 2023. With sales of 1.2 million last year, Two-Wheelers dominated that category.

More than 100, 000 electric cars were sold in the financial year that ended on March 31, 2025, which is also increasing sales. Tesla joined the movement in July, and she also unveiled its Model Y in the nation. In consequence, according to a report from CareEdge Analytics &amp, Advisory in July, the penetration of electric cars has more than doubled over the past two years, increasing from 1% to 2.6 percent.

Businesses in India are concerned that the current rare earth shortages may drive potential customers away, but sales of electric cars have started to increase.

However, a number of EV companies have stayed away from discussing the rare earth crisis.

According to Nilanjan Banik, an economics professor at Mahindra University, “the industry is still in a young state, and companies fear that they may lose customers and their share value if they concede to a rare earth shortage because potential buyers may be too apprehensive to purchase the vehicles.”

Due to their superior performance and compact size, the television industry is also affected by the shortage. Rare-earth magnets are crucial in the production of televisions, especially for speakers.

This presents a clear challenge, according to Arjun Bajaj, director of Videotex – television manufacturers for various reputable brands. The country is still heavily dependent on imports for these components. The industry is actively looking into alternatives like ferrite magnets, he continued, “While we currently have sufficient stocks for the current season, our focus is also on finding an alternative solution.” “But to match the performance of rare-earth magnets will require continued research and technological upgrades,” he continued.

Relief for India

After holding talks with Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar in Beijing on August 19, China announced that it would ease export restrictions on fertilisers, rare earths, and tunnel-boring equipment to India.

However, this was referred to as a “tactical gesture” by experts.

In the previous fiscal year, India’s trade deficit with China was a record $100 billion. In a recent clash between New Delhi and Islamabad in May, Beijing has also publicly supported India’s archrival, Pakistan, as a reminder that India’s dependence on China poses a risk for it.

The founder of the trade research group Global Research Trade Initiative (GTRI), Ajay Srivastava, said that “India’s dependence on China gives]the latter] significant leverage during crises.

“China now meets the needs of India in a number of crucial areas. Chinese imports are also a major industry player, accounting for 86% of all sales of everyday items like laptops and flat-panel displays. India’s share of bilateral trade has dropped to just 11.2 percent from 42.3% two decades ago, demonstrating how fragile supply chains are. The easement of the supply of rare earths is only a tactical move, according to Srivastava.

India, which has 8.52 million tonnes of rare earth elements, accounts for less than 1% of the world’s rare earth mining because it faces significant challenges due to its limited infrastructure, technological advancements, regulatory obstacles, and environmental concerns. It also has the fifth-largest number of rare earth elements.

According to Vishwas Dass, a policy expert from Delhi, the current disruption must be harnessed to promote domestic exploration, encourage capacity refining, and form mineral alliances with trusted partners.

Assam and West Bengal have already seen the start of exploration by the Geological Survey of India (GSI).

Asit Saha, director general of GSI, stated to Al Jazeera that the exploration is in line with India’s long-term strategic plan to achieve self-reliance in key sectors and that it is consistent with the government’s policy of securing domestic mineral supplies for additional technological and industrial needs.

Chip giant Nvidia’s sales rise 56% in boost for AI boom

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Nvidia, the world’s largest manufacturer of chips, has set a new sales record, indicating that artificial intelligence is still popular despite concerns that the technology may be overhyped.

The most valuable company in the world, Nvidia, announced on Wednesday that it had earned $46.74 billion for the three months ending in July, an increase of 56% year over year.

The quarter’s profit reached $ 26.42 billion, up 59 percent from the previous quarter’s increase.

The tech giant’s most recent earnings report was eagerly awaited because it was widely believed to be a sign of the AI boom that had propelled the US stock market from an all-time high.

Production of Blackwell Ultra, Nvidia’s most recent platform, was “at full speed,” according to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, and the demand for the company’s products was “extraordinary.”

“Blackwell is the platform at the center of the AI race,” Jensen said.

The Santa Clara, California-based tech giant predicted revenue of $ 54 billion, or 2%, for the July-September quarter, which would be slightly above market expectations.

Nvidia’s stock price decreased by more than 3 percent in after-hours trading despite the company’s robust results, which shows how high expectations are placed on the chipmaker, which is worth more than $4.4 trillion.

Nvidia’s sales, in particular, did not include any deliveries to China, whose export laws intended to stifle Beijing’s development of artificial intelligence (AI) are in place by the US government.

Following concerted lobbying by Huang, US President Donald Trump’s administration earlier this month lifted a ban on sales of Nvidia’s H20 chip, which was created specifically for the Chinese market.

Nvidia agreed to pay the US government 15% of chip sales in China as part of the deal it made with the Trump administration.

Although Nvidia’s prospects have been hampered by a recent directive from Beijing urging local businesses to refrain from doing business with the company, the H20’s lifting raises the possibility that the company may have enormous untapped sales potential in the second-largest economy.

If the China business even comes back to life, according to The Kobeissi Letter, a newsletter published after capital markets, “just imagine what will happen to this stock.”

“Jensen Huang will undoubtedly be working overtime to improve the situation in China. The AI revolution is in full swing.

Over the past two years, Nvidia’s revenue has grown at a rate never before seen due to the explosion in demand for its AI.

Between mid-2019 and 2024, the business increased revenue by triple digits for five straight quarters.

Nvidia shares have increased by more than 11 times since the start of 2023, and the stock has increased by more than 30% this year.

The company’s impressive performance, supported by multibillion-dollar AI investments by tech giants like Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon, has sparked debate about whether artificial intelligence might be in a bubble.

Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,281

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On Thursday, August 28, 2018, the situation is as follows:

Fighting

  • At least one person died, four were hurt, and several buildings in the city’s central Kyiv have been damaged, according to early on Thursday, according to officials in Kiev, the country’s capital.
  • According to The Associated Press (AP) news agency, Russian troops have entered the villages of Novoheorhiivka and Zaporizke in the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, a major Ukrainian industrial hub close to the Donetsk region, citing a local commander.
  • More than 100 000 households were without power as a result of strikes across Ukraine on Wednesday, according to Kyiv officials, who claimed three people were killed.
  • In what it called a “deliberate policy of destroying Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure on the eve of the heating season,” the Ukrainian Ministry of Energy claimed that Russian attacks were being launched against energy and gas transport infrastructure facilities in six regions.
  • More than 100,000 homes in the Poltava, Sumy, and Chernihiv regions were without electricity as a result of Russian attacks, according to Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
  • Local authorities said an 81-year-old woman died in an overnight attack on the regional capital and a farm was seriously damaged by heavy shelling in the southern Kherson region of Ukraine, killing two employees.
  • According to Mykhailo Fedorov, the head of Ukraine’s digitalisation ministry, “the data we have is priceless for any country,” the country is considering how to share battlefield data with its allies.
  • After Poland claimed it might no longer be able to pay for the 30, 000 Starlink internet systems it had backed, Fedorov added that he was confident in finding a solution to allow it to continue funding them. The largest donor of SpaceX’s satellite internet devices to Ukraine is Poland, which it uses as a crucial communication tool that is resistant to Russian hacking and jamming.

Peace talks

  • President Zelenskyy called for “pressure” to be put on Russia to “force them to take real steps” toward peace after receiving “very haughty and negative signals from Moscow regarding the negotiations” on ending the conflict with Russia.
  • Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, had a number of priorities, including making an unprecedented trip to China and getting ready for an economic forum in the Russian Far East, according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who refrained from calling for quick peace talks.
  • Additionally, Peskov rebuffed the idea of sending Ukrainian peacekeepers from Europe, saying, “We view such discussions negatively. Russia sees in particular this “exact movement of NATO military infrastructure” into Ukraine as one of the “root causes” of the conflict, he claimed.

diplomacy and politics

  • Russia’s withdrawal from the Council of Europe’s treaty on the prevention of torture has drawn criticism from Ukraine, who claims the move was a covert admission of guilt by Moscow. Russian officials have long accused Russia of torturing and torturing Ukrainian civilians and prisoners of war.
  • Olha Stefanishyna, a former top cabinet minister, will be Ukraine’s next ambassador to the US, according to Zelenskyy’s decree. According to Zellenskyy, “Ukraine’s long-term security depends on our relations with America,” and she cited US military assistance as top diplomatic priorities.
  • Andriy Yermak, Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, and Rustem Umerov, the head of security council, were in Saudi Arabia ahead of meetings with US administration officials in New York.

Regional security

  • In response to growing concerns about Russian aggression, Germany has begun a campaign to encourage more people to join its voluntary military service.
  • German weapons company Rheinmetall opened its biggest munitions factory in Europe on Wednesday, according to NATO’s Mark Rutte, who praised the move as strengthening Western defenses. At the ceremony’s opening address, Rutte stated, “This is absolutely crucial for our own security as well as to keep supporting Ukraine in its fight today and to deter any aggression in the future.”
  • According to the Romanian industry ministry, the country’s industry ministry has signed a framework agreement with Rheinmetall to construct a 535 million euro ($626.3 million) factory for munitions ignition powder.
  • According to a report that the cabinet approved, Germany approved a record 12.8 billion euros ($14.9) of weapons exports last year. According to the report, 64 percent of the total was approved for Ukraine, or 8.15 billion ($9.49 billion) worth of defense products.
  • German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, French President Emmanuel Macron, and Polish prime minister Donald Tusk criticized what they called “hybrid attacks” and “lies” by Russians as they supported the country’s pro-European government.
  • Only three NATO members are currently achieving a new, higher 3.5% target set by alliance leaders in June, according to data released on Thursday. All NATO members will now have accomplished the long-standing goal of putting 2 percent of their GDP into defense this year.
  • Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the president of Turkey, formally inaugurated Turkiye’s integrated air defense system known as the “Steel Dome,” which he characterized as a turning point for the nation and its defense sector.

Economy

  • According to Russian President Vladimir Putin, high interest rates imposed to lower inflation have stifled borrowing, leading to a slowing of 1.5 percent, far below the earlier 2.5 percent forecast. Despite numerous rounds of Western sanctions following its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russia’s war economy increased steadily to 4.1 percent in 2023 and 4.3 percent in 2024, which is much faster than that of the G7 countries. However, it is sapping sharply this year.
  • In an effort to lower fuel prices, which have soared since Ukrainian attacks on refineries, Russian authorities announced an extension of the ban on gasoline exports until October 31.
  • According to the AP news agency, Ukrainian drones have recently attacked refineries and other oil infrastructure in some areas of Russia, leaving drivers waiting in long lines and officials rationing or completely halting sales. Russian media reports that consumers are experiencing fuel shortages in a number of regions in the Far East and the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014?
  • According to Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto in a post on X on Wednesday, crude oil shipments from Russia to Hungary could resume on Thursday in test mode at lower volumes. Following Ukraine’s most recent attack on Russian energy infrastructure, Hungary and Slovakia announced on Friday that oil supplies via the Druzhba pipeline could be suspended for at least five days.
  • As a result of the US President Donald Trump’s effort to punish New Delhi for purchasing Russian oil in the midst of the Ukraine war, 50% of US tariffs were implemented on a number of Indian products on Wednesday.
  • Yulia Svyrydenko, the country’s prime minister, announced that Ukraine has begun a tender for the right to mine a lithium deposit site in the Kirovohrad region. In order to maintain Washington’s support in its conflict with Russia, the US and Kyiv are expected to hold the first project in a joint investment fund signed in April.