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Japan, UK to expand defense ties at sea, military technology

TOKYO (AP) — The British aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth and its strike group will visit Japanese ports in September for joint exercises, defense ministers from Japan and Britain said Tuesday as the two countries step up military ties amid increased Chinese assertiveness in regional seas.

British defense secretary Ben Wallace said the visit by the Royal Navy’s largest warship is part of his country’s “Indo-Pacific tilt” that shares goals with Japan.

“Both our countries seek to protect and uphold the rules-based international order,” Wallace said at a joint news conference after meeting with his Japanese counterpart, Nobuo Kishi.

Japan has been seeking to expand and deepen security ties with other nations in addition to its chief ally, the United States, as China presses its claims to contested areas in the South China Sea and to the Japanese-controlled Senkaku islands, which China also claims and calls Diaoyu.

Tokyo has been strengthening ties with Britain, Australia, France and Southeast Asian countries.

Kishi said Britain is an important partner in addressing the joint challenges they face in the Indo-Pacific region. “We confirmed our shared position in strongly opposing unilateral attempts using force to change the status quo in the East and South China Seas,” Kishi said.

Wallace and Kishi said they also agreed to accelerate discussions on possible collaboration on Japan’s next-generation FX fighter jet, focusing on engine systems and subsystems.

The Royal Navy strike group left home in May as part of Britain’s increased involvement in the Indo-Pacific region.

Wallace said it is the duty of the two like-minded countries “to protect those that are unable to protect themselves from adversaries that will threaten them.”

Protests erupt in India’s Parliament over spyware scandal

NEW DELHI (AP) — India’s Parliament erupted in protests on Tuesday as opposition lawmakers accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government of using military-grade spyware to monitor political opponents, journalists and activists.

The session was disrupted repeatedly as opposition lawmakers shouted slogans against Modi’s government and demanded an investigation into how the spyware, known as Pegasus, was used in India.

“This is a national security threat,” an opposition Congress party official, Kapil Sibal, said at a news conference.

The protests came after an investigation by a global media consortium was published on Sunday. Based on leaked targeting data, the findings provided evidence that the spyware from Israel-based NSO Group, the world’s most infamous hacker-for-hire company, was used to allegedly infiltrate devices belonging to a range of targets, including journalists, activists and political opponents in 50 countries.

In India, the list of potential surveillance targets included senior Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi, at least 40 journalists, a veteran election strategist critical of Modi and a top virologist, according to the investigation.

Newly appointed information technology minister Ashwani Vaishnaw dismissed the allegations on Monday, calling them “highly sensational,” “over the top,” and “an attempt to malign the Indian democracy.”

Minutes after his statement in Parliament, India’s independent The Wire website — part of the media consortium — revealed that his name also appeared on the list as a potential surveillance target in 2017. He was not a member of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party at that time.

NSO Group has said it only sells its spyware to “vetted government agencies” for use against terrorists and major criminals. The Indian government has so far dodged questions over whether it is a client of the group.

A list of more than 50,000 cellphone numbers was obtained by the Paris-based journalism nonprofit Forbidden Stories and the human rights group Amnesty International, which was then shared with 16 news organizations.

Journalists were able to identify more than 1,000 individuals in 50 countries who were allegedly selected by NSO clients for potential surveillance, including 300 verified Indian numbers, The Wire reported.

The source of the leak — and how it was authenticated — was not disclosed. A phone number’s presence in the data does not necessarily mean an attempt was made to hack a device, Amnesty International said.

In India, the investigation fueled a slew of angry reactions from officials.

Home Minister Amit Shah called the investigation an attempt to “derail India’s development trajectory through their conspiracies” and said it was “timed to cause disruptions in Parliament.”

The former IT minister, Ravi Shankar Prasad, said there was “not a shred of evidence linking Indian government or the BJP” to the allegations. Prasad called it an international plot to defame India.

Rights groups say the findings bolster accusations that not just autocratic regimes but also democratic governments, including India, have used the spyware for political ends.

It has also intensified concerns of a democratic backsliding and erosion of civil liberties under Modi. Recently, the Washington-based Freedom House downgraded India, the world’s most populous democracy, from “free” to “partly free.”

Rahul Gandhi, the most influential Indian name revealed so far, was Modi’s main challenger in the 2014 and 2019 general election. Two of his phone numbers used between mid-2018 and mid-2019, in the runup to the election, appear on the list.

Gandhi no longer has the devices so it was not possible to analyze them to determine if they had been hacked, The Wire reported. They also found at least nine numbers of people in Gandhi’s circle.

The list also included Gangandeep Kang, a top virologist, Prashant Kishor, a longtime political strategist who helped Modi to power in 2014 but is now one of his strongest opponents, and Ashok Lavasa, a former top official in India’s Election Commission.

Phone numbers of a Supreme Court staffer who accused the former chief justice, Ranjan Gogoi, of sexual harassment in 2019, also appeared in the data just days after she recorded her allegations. Gogoi was later cleared of the allegations, which he had denied.

Flooding in central China turns streets to rivers, kills 12

BEIJING (AP) — At least 12 people died in severe flooding Tuesday in a Chinese provincial capital that trapped people in subways and schools, washed away vehicles and stranded people in their workplaces overnight.

The already drenched city of Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan province, was hit by 20 centimeters (8 inches) of rain from 4 to 5 p.m., the official Xinhua News Agency said, citing the Henan weather agency.

The torrent of rain turned streets into rapidly flowing rivers and inundated subways stations and cars. Videos posted online showed entire neighborhoods covered in waist-deep water and vehicles floating in the muddy mire.

To the north of Zhengzhou, the famed Shaolin Temple known for its Buddhist monks’ mastery of martial arts was badly hit. Henan province is home to many cultural sites and a major base for industry and agriculture.

Xinhua said 12 people had died and 100,000 people had been moved to safer places.

Stranded people were spending the night in their workplaces or checked into hotels.

Wang Guirong, a 56-year-old restaurant manager, said she planned to sleep on the couch in her restaurant after being told there was no power in her neighborhood. The State Grid Zhengzhou Power Supply Co. said a downtown substation was forced to shut down because of the rain.

“I have lived in Zhengzhou all my life and have never seen such a heavy rainstorm as today,” Wang said.

China experiences regular flooding during the summer, but the growth of cities and conversion of farmland into subdivisions has raised the impact of such events.

The top iPhone and iPad apps on App Store

Top Paid iPhone Apps:

1. My Child Lebensborn, Sarepta Studio AS

2. Minecraft, Mojang

3. Heads Up!, Warner Bros.

4. HotSchedules, HotSchedules

5. Bloons TD 6, Ninja Kiwi

6. Procreate Pocket, Savage Interactive Pty Ltd

7. Geometry Dash, RobTop Games AB

8. Incredibox, So Far So Good

9. Monopoly, Marmalade Game Studio

10. Plague Inc., Ndemic Creations

Top Free iPhone Apps:

1. TikTok, TikTok Pte. Ltd.

2. Fidget Trading 3D: Fidget Toys, MagicLab

3. YouTube: Watch, Listen, Stream, Google LLC

4. Instagram, Instagram, Inc.

5. Google Maps, Google LLC

6. HBO Max: Stream TV & Movies, WarnerMedia

7. Facebook, Facebook, Inc.

8. Snapchat, Snap, Inc.

9. Messenger, Facebook, Inc.

10. My Talking Angela 2, Outfit7 Limited

Top Paid iPad Apps:

1. Procreate, Savage Interactive Pty Ltd

2. Minecraft, Mojang

3. My Child Lebensborn, Sarepta Studio AS

4. GoodNotes 5, Time Base Technology Limited

5. Notability, Ginger Labs

6. Bloons TD 6, Ninja Kiwi

7. Geometry Dash, RobTop Games AB

8. Toca Life: Hospital, Toca Boca AB

9. Toca Kitchen 2, Toca Boca AB

10. Toca Life: Vacation, Toca Boca AB

Top Free iPad Apps:

1. Trading Master 3D – Fidget Pop, Panteon

2. Fidget Trading 3D: Fidget Toys, MagicLab

3. Run Rich 3D, Voodoo

4. My Talking Angela 2, Outfit7 Limited

5. Disney+, Disney

6. YouTube: Watch, Listen, Stream, Google LLC

7. Roblox, Roblox Corporation

8. Netflix, Netflix, Inc.

9. HBO Max: Stream TV & Movies, WarnerMedia

10. Paper Fold, Good Job Games

New cybersecurity order issued for US pipeline operators

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday announced new requirements for U.S. pipeline operators to bolster cybersecurity following a May ransomware attack that disrupted gas delivery across the East Coast.

In a statement, DHS said it would require operators of federally designated critical pipelines to implement “specific mitigation measures” to prevent ransomware attacks and other cyber intrusions. Operators must also implement contingency plans and conduct what the department calls a “cybersecurity architecture design review.”

It’s the latest response by the Biden administration to a series of ransomware attacks and intrusions hitting critical U.S. infrastructure and raising fears about American cybersecurity.

DHS did not immediately release further details about the guidance, which comes after another directive issued weeks after the May 7 attack on Georgia-based Colonial Pipeline.

U.S. agencies on Tuesday also disclosed that Chinese government-linked intruders targeted 23 natural gas pipeline operators from 2011 to 2013. Thirteen of those attacks were confirmed intrusions, according to a government advisory.

The Colonial attack led to the shutdown of a system delivering about 45% of the gasoline consumed along the East Coast and sparked long lines and gas shortages in several states.

Colonial paid an estimated $4.4 million ransom, most of which was recovered by the Justice Department. The FBI has blamed the attack on a Russia-based gang of hackers using the DarkSide ransomware variant.

The Biden administration has repeatedly accused Russia of granting safe haven to criminal gangs and trying to steal from government agencies and private organizations in various sectors. It imposed sanctions in April for a range of activities including hacking.

Russia has broadly denied being involved in cyberattacks of U.S. institutions, decrying “unfounded accusations” in a statement last month.

The U.S. and key allies this week accused China of complicity in a massive hack of Microsoft Exchange email server software that victimized thousands of organizations. That announcement, however, was not accompanied by sanctions against China, which has accused the U.S. of making “groundless attacks” against it regarding cybersecurity.

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