عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
World

Israel Provides China with Spying Tech

Anti-government demonstrators scuffle with riot police during a lunch time protest as a second reading of a controversial national anthem law takes place in Hong Kong, China May 27, 2020. (photo credit: TYRONE SIU/ REUTERS)
Anti-government demonstrators scuffle with riot police during a lunch time protest as a second reading of a controversial national anthem law takes place in Hong Kong, China May 27, 2020. (photo credit: TYRONE SIU/ REUTERS)
TT
TT

Israel Provides China with Spying Tech

Anti-government demonstrators scuffle with riot police during a lunch time protest as a second reading of a controversial national anthem law takes place in Hong Kong, China May 27, 2020. (photo credit: TYRONE SIU/ REUTERS)
Anti-government demonstrators scuffle with riot police during a lunch time protest as a second reading of a controversial national anthem law takes place in Hong Kong, China May 27, 2020. (photo credit: TYRONE SIU/ REUTERS)

A top Hong Kong activist has called on the Israeli government to stop providing the Chinese authorities with spying technologies, which are used by Beijing to quell protesters.

Joshua Wong, a Hong Kong pro-democracy leader, urged Israel to block a civilian technology company from selling products China used to spy on protesters, the Jerusalem Post reported on Friday.

It said Wong wrote a Facebook post saying a software developed by an Israeli company called Cellebrite was used by the Hong Kong police forces to hack into his phone.

Wong also shared a letter by Israeli human rights lawyer Eitay Mack calling on the Defense Ministry and Economy Ministry to block Cellebrite from exporting its product to Hong Kong.

The letter was cosigned by 37 Israeli human rights activists “who support the rights of the citizens of Hong Kong to life, liberty and personal safety under a democratic government which will uphold their civil and human rights.”

The activists stated that the Cellebrite system was used to hack into the phones of 4,000 Hong Kong citizens. Along with the letter is a Hong Kong police document indicating that Cellebrite was used to break into Wong’s phone in April 2020.

The Israeli spy technologies allowed the Chinese authorities to control the phones of millions of residents and to even control them.

Almost a year ago, protests spread across Hong Kong after the Chinese Parliament passed a new national security law that gives Beijing broad powers to crack down on a variety of political crimes, mainly four major offenses in the law: separatism, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign countries.

Protesters in Hong Kong opposed the law, describing it as a means to outlaw dissent and destroy the autonomy promised when Hong Kong was returned from the UK to China in 1997.

Last month, Chinese President Xi Jinping signed the contentious law.

Most Viewed

 
 
World

UK Ministers Back Starmer Amid Fresh Calls to Quit

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer co-hosts a multinational virtual summit at the Elysee Presidential Palace, in Paris, France, on April 17, 2026. (Tom Nicholson/Pool via Reuters)
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer co-hosts a multinational virtual summit at the Elysee Presidential Palace, in Paris, France, on April 17, 2026. (Tom Nicholson/Pool via Reuters)
TT
TT

UK Ministers Back Starmer Amid Fresh Calls to Quit

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer co-hosts a multinational virtual summit at the Elysee Presidential Palace, in Paris, France, on April 17, 2026. (Tom Nicholson/Pool via Reuters)
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer co-hosts a multinational virtual summit at the Elysee Presidential Palace, in Paris, France, on April 17, 2026. (Tom Nicholson/Pool via Reuters)

British government ministers on Sunday backed embattled premier Keir Starmer as he struggles to shake off a scandal over long-time Jeffrey Epstein associate Peter Mandelson.

Starmer is due to face lawmakers in parliament on Monday to explain how Mandelson was appointed Britain's ambassador to the United States in late 2024 despite failing to pass security checks.

The beleaguered prime minister, who has been dogged by the controversy for months, said Friday that he and other ministers were not told Mandelson had failed the vetting process, calling that "unforgivable".

He has blamed foreign office mandarins for allowing Mandelson's appointment against the advice of security officials, and sacked the department's top civil servant Olly Robins on Thursday.

But ex-civil servants have accused Dowing Street of scapegoating Robbins while opposition leaders have called for Starmer to quit, with accusations ranging from incompetence to willful misleading of the public.

Technology minister Liz Kendall told the BBC on Sunday that Starmer would not have appointed Mandelson had he known that he had not received the appropriate security clearance.

Deputy prime minister David Lammy, who was foreign secretary when Mandelson was appointed to Washington, said the same in an interview with the Guardian published late Saturday.

Kendall said Starmer should remain in his job because he had "made the right call" on big issues, such as building closer relations with the European Union and limiting Britain's involvement in the Iran war.

"I think he is an honest man and a man of integrity who says it was a mistake to appoint him," she told Sky News.

Lammy said it was "inexplicable" that the foreign office had kept Downing Street in the dark, telling the Guardian he had been "shocked and surprised" when he learned what happened.

Starmer, already widely unpopular with the British public due to several policy mis-steps, has faced repeated questions about his judgement for selecting Mandelson whose friendship with Epstein was well known.

He sacked Mandelson in September 2025 after new details emerged about the depth of Mandelson's ties to Epstein, who died in prison in 2019 while facing sex-trafficking charges.

UK police are investigating allegations of misconduct in office by Mandelson when he was a Labour minister more than 15 years ago. He was arrested and released in February.

Mandelson has not been charged and denies criminal wrongdoing.

World

Australian Soldier Charged with War Crimes Vows to Clear His Name

A former member of Australia's elite Special Air Service regiment Ben Roberts-Smith leaves the Federal Court in Sydney on May 1, 2025. (AFP)
A former member of Australia's elite Special Air Service regiment Ben Roberts-Smith leaves the Federal Court in Sydney on May 1, 2025. (AFP)
TT
TT

Australian Soldier Charged with War Crimes Vows to Clear His Name

A former member of Australia's elite Special Air Service regiment Ben Roberts-Smith leaves the Federal Court in Sydney on May 1, 2025. (AFP)
A former member of Australia's elite Special Air Service regiment Ben Roberts-Smith leaves the Federal Court in Sydney on May 1, 2025. (AFP)

An Australian former soldier charged with committing war crimes in Afghanistan vowed on Sunday to clear his name, saying he had never "run from a fight" in his first public comments since his arrest.

"For the past 10 years, my family and I have been subject to a campaign to convince Australians that I've acted improperly in my service in Afghanistan," Ben Roberts-Smith told journalists at the Gold Coast.

"I categorically deny all of these allegations, and while I would have preferred these charges not be brought, I will be taking this opportunity to finally clear my name," he said.

Roberts-Smith was granted bail on Friday after a high-profile arrest on five counts of "war crime -- murder". Police alleged he was complicit in a string of unlawful killings between 2009 and 2012.

The Victoria Cross recipient has denied all the charges.

He was released from prison on Friday evening after 10 days behind bars.

"I'm proud of my service in Afghanistan. While I was there, I always acted within my values," he said on Sunday.

Australia's most decorated living soldier met Queen Elizabeth II, had his portrait hung at the Australian War Memorial and was honored as the nation's "father of the year".

But the war hero's reputation was called into question in 2018, when a series of news reports linked him to the alleged murder of unarmed Afghan prisoners by Australian troops.

Roberts-Smith allegedly kicked an unarmed Afghan civilian off a cliff and ordered subordinates to shoot him, The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald reported.

He was also said to have taken part in the machine-gunning of a man who had a prosthetic limb, which he later used as a drinking vessel with other soldiers.

Roberts-Smith has staunchly maintained his innocence throughout, launching legal action against the newspapers that carried the allegations.

But his efforts to sue The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald for defamation backfired, with a judge finding in 2023 that many of the journalists' claims were "substantially true".

Such civil trials carry a lower burden of proof than the criminal proceedings Roberts-Smith now faces.

Australia deployed 39,000 troops to Afghanistan over two decades as part of US- and NATO-led operations against the Taliban and other militant groups.

World

Zelensky Says Oil Sanctions Relief Provides Billions for Russian Military

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky waits to welcome Swedish king in Lviv on April 17, 2026, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (AFP)
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky waits to welcome Swedish king in Lviv on April 17, 2026, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (AFP)
TT
TT

Zelensky Says Oil Sanctions Relief Provides Billions for Russian Military

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky waits to welcome Swedish king in Lviv on April 17, 2026, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (AFP)
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky waits to welcome Swedish king in Lviv on April 17, 2026, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (AFP)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday condemned the easing of sanctions on Russian oil after the United States extended a waiver meant to soften surging energy prices driven by the Middle East war.

"Every dollar paid for Russian oil is money for the war" and is used for devastating strikes on Ukraine, Zelensky said in a post on X.

Zelensky did not mention the United States, but President Donald Trump's administration on Friday issued a month-long sanctions waiver allowing the sale of Russian oil and petroleum products that are at sea.

The action was intended to bring down soaring energy prices. But the US Treasury Department extension came two days after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that Washington would not renew the waiver.

Zelensky said there were more than 110 tankers carrying Russian oil in breach of international sanctions currently at sea, carrying more than 12 million tons of crude "which, due to the easing of sanctions, can once again be sold without consequences.

"That is $10 billion -- a resource that is directly converted into new strikes against Ukraine," Zelensky said.

The Ukraine leader said that in the past week, Russia had launched more than 2,360 attack drones, more than 1,320 guided aerial bombs "and nearly 60 missiles of various types at our cities and communities".

A 16-year-old boy was killed and four people wounded in one overnight attack on the northern city of Chernihiv, the head of the local administration said Sunday.

Zelensky said: "It is important that Russian tankers are stopped, not allowed to deliver oil to ports. The aggressor's oil exports must decrease, and Ukraine's long-range sanctions continue to work toward that goal."