Categories
Technology

Aspect of Justice, Wrathbone Invasion, bug fixes, and more

Diablo Immortal season 3 (August 3) official patch notes (Image via Diablo Immortal)

The Diablo Immortal season 3 update is finally live. The patch has brought with it a new Battle Pass, Aspect of Justice, as well as the Wrathbone Invasion daily event.

The Hungering Moon limited-time event will also be making a return, along with a plethora of bug fixes that will be enhancing multiple aspects of the game.

Diablo Immortal fans looking for a detailed description of the patch can look up Blizzard’s official website. However, for a brief overview, here are all the major highlights.

Diablo Immortal season 3 (August 3) official patch notes

youtube-cover

Battle Pass: Aspects of Justice

  • New season 3 Battle pass Aspect of Justice is now live.
  • Empowered Battle Pass: Includes all rank rewards from the free standard Battle Pass but also unlocks an Empowered track that provides additional rewards at each rank. Plus, players will receive the gilded Aspect of Justice Weapon cosmetic, unlocked at rank one, and the radiant Aspect of Justice Armor cosmetic, unlocked at rank 40.
  • Collector’s Empowered Battle Pass: Gives players access to all rank rewards and cosmetics from the Empowered Battle Pass. Plus, the Aspect of Justice Avatar Frame, Portal cosmetic, and a ten-rank boost, all provided immediately after upgrading.
  • The Season Three Battle Pass only runs until September 1, at 2:59 am server time

Daily Event: Wrathbone Invasion

  • Hells is underway—the Wrathborne, with their armies in tow, have besieged Sanctuary. At 12:00 pm server time each day, daring adventurers can band together to repel hordes of bloodthirsty elite demons.
  • If the minions of the Burning Hells fail to claim the zone they’re attacking, Gorgothra will seek to finish the job herself, sending an empowered echo of her likeness to clean up any resistance.

Limited-time event: Hungering Moon

  • Fulfilling the moon’s demands will earn players Moonslivers, which can be traded for Blessings. After acquiring seven Blessings players will have curried enough goodwill with the moon to trade these in for a random reward.

youtube-cover

Bug fixes

Cycle of Strife:

  • Fixed an issue that would prevent players from receiving the Shadows intro quest if their clan converted to Shadows while they were offline.
  • Fixed an issue in Shadow War that would allow the Immortal to move in and out of the designated arena.
  • Fixed an issue that prevented players from signing up for the Shadow Lottery and displayed the number of participants as zero.

Events:

  • Fixed an issue in Hungering Moon that prevented players from completing quests that require obtaining Legendary and Rare gear.

Gameplay:

  • Fixed an issue that would cause players to get stuck during the Prison of the Scorpion quest.
  • Fixed an issue that prevented party invitations from being sent to players while in certain areas of Bilefen.

Graphics:

Also Read
Story Continues below

  • Fixed an issue that would cause the screen to be covered in black blocks when selecting the High quality option for Shadows in the Settings Menu.

Legendary Gem:

  • Changed the description of Lightning Core’s lightning proc effect cooldown to read as “Cannot occur more than once every 20 seconds,” instead of “Cannot occur more than once every 20 seconds per target.”

UI:

  • Fixed an issue that would allow overworld map pins to be visible inside the dungeon map.

.

Categories
US

12-year-old escapes Alabama home, leads cops to 2 bodies

12-year-old escapes Alabama home, leads cops to 2 bodies

A young girl chewed through restraints to escape to a rural Alabama home where investigators later found two decomposing bodies, authorities said.

José Paulino Pascual-Reyes, 37, is facing kidnapping charges and multiple counts of capital murder in connection to the bodies found at the home after a 12-year-old girl was discovered walking along a roadside early Monday in Dadeville.

Tallapoosa County Sheriff Jimmy Abbett told reporters at a press conference that a driver picked up the girl and called 911 — setting off an investigation that led to Pascual-Reyes’ arrest and the gross discovery, AL.com reported.

Pascual-Reyes, who remains jailed pending a bond hearing, was arrested in Auburn. The bodies were found in his Dadeville home, not far from where the girl was discovered wandering alone.

The decomposing remains have been sent to the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences to be identified, Abbett said, adding it’s unclear how long they had been there.

“It’s a fluid investigation,” the sheriff told reporters. “Things are changing, and I don’t want to jeopardize the identification of our juvenile.”

Pascual-Reyes had lived at the home since February, Abbett said. Other people were there where cops arrived, but he did not elaborate, AL.com reported.
Pascual-Reyes had lived at the home since February.
WSFA
Pascual-Reyes, who remains jailed pending a bond hearing, was arrested in Auburn. The bodies were found in his Dadeville home, not far from where the girl was discovered wandering alone.
The bodies were found in Pascual-Reyes’ Dadeville home, not far from where the girl was discovered wandering alone.
WSFA

Court filings obtained by WSFA show the girl had been tied to bedposts for nearly a week. She was assaulted and plied with alcohol, but managed to escape by chewing through her restraints from her, the documents show.

Authorities did not indicate whether the girl knew Pascual-Reyes, AL.com reported.

“I would say she’s a hero,” Abbett said. “It’s one of those things we won’t get into until later. We gave her medical attention. She is safe now. We want to keep her that way.”

Pascual-Reyes had lived at the home since February, Abbett said. Other people were there when cops arrived, but he did not elaborate, AL.com reported.

“It’s horrendous to have a crime scene of this nature,” the sheriff told reporters Tuesday.

.

Categories
Australia

A wounded environment leads to an unliveable economy

A wounded environment leads to an unliveable economy

That’s why the most important economic event of recent times is not the latest rise in interest rates, it’s last month’s State of the Environment report – whose release was delayed until we found a government with the courage to break the bad news.

The report’s significance is not only its roll call of how much damage we’ve done so far, but its account of the way that damage is damaging the humans who’ve done it.

We’ve been damaging the environment in many ways – loss of habitat and species, introduction of invasive animals and plants, pollution and waste disposal, salinity and other damage to soil and waterways, overfishing – but the greatest single source of damage, of course , is climate change.

The five-yearly report brings the bad news that climate change is compounding all the other problems. And whereas previous reports warned of future damage from climate change, this one shows it’s already happening – and getting worse.

It documents the extreme floods, droughts, heatwaves, storms and bushfires that have occurred across Australia in the past five years. The immediate effects have been millions of animals killed and habitats burned, enormous areas of reef bleached, and people’s livelihoods and homes lost.

But there are many longer-term effects still to play out. Extreme conditions put immense stress on species already threatened by habitat loss and invasive species. An extreme heatwave in 2018, for example, killed 23,000 spectacled flying foxes, making them an endangered species.

loading

Many of our ecosystems have evolved to rebound from bushfires. But now that the fires are coming more often and are more intense, the bush doesn’t have enough time to recover, which scientists expect will make it weedy – only those species that live fast and reproduce quickly will thrive.

But enough about plants and animals, what about us? While cyclones, floods and bushfires directly destroy our homes and landscapes, Professor Emma Johnston, of Sydney University and an author of the report, writes that heatwaves kill more people in Australia than any other extreme event.

Heatwave intensity has increased by a third over the past two decades. And climate change worsens air quality through dust, smoke and emissions. The Black Summer of 2019-20 exposed more than 80 per cent of our population to smoke, killing about 420 people.

As Liz Hanna and Mark Howden, of the Australian National University, remind us, clean air is just one of the “ecosystem services” the environment provides to you and me in the economy. Another is clean food. A lot of our recent complaints about the cost of living – the high cost of meat and vegetables, the mythical $10 iceberg lettuce – come from the delayed effect of the drought and the recent effect of the floods.

Yet another service is clean water. But many country towns had to truck in water during the last drought. Land clearing affects water quality. Run-off from agriculture damages water ecosystems and encourages algal bloom and species loss. More than 4 million people depend on the Murray-Darling rivers for their water, but the catchments are rated as poor or very poor.

loading

Finally, the report reminds us that contact with (healthy) nature is associated with mental health benefits, promotes physical activity and contributes to overall wellbeing. Biodiversity and green and blue spaces in cities are linked to stress reduction and mood improvement, increased respiratory health, and lower rates of depression and blood pressure. Enjoy ’em while they last.

The Opinion newsletter is a weekly wrap of views that will challenge, champion and inform your own. Sign up here.

Categories
US

A ‘guard cat’ named Bandit helped stopped an armed robbery at the home of a Mississippi man

A 'guard cat' named Bandit helped stopped an armed robbery at the home of a Mississippi man

BELDEN, Miss. — A Mississippi man said his pet cat from him helped prevent a robbery at his home from him, and he credits the calico with possibly saving his life from him.

Bandit, a 20-pound cat, lives with her retired owner Fred Everitt in the Tupelo suburb of Belden. When at least two people tried to break into their shared home last week, the cat did everything she could to alert Everitt of the danger, he told the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal.

“You hear of guard dogs,” said Everitt, 68. “This is a guard cat.”

The attempted robbery occurred sometime between 2:30 and 3 am on July 25, Everitt said. He was first awoken by Bandit’s meows in the kitchen. Then, she raced into the bedroom, jumped onto the bed and began pulling the comforter off of him and clawing at her arms. Everitt knew something was wrong.

“She had never done that before,” Everitt said. “I went, ‘What in the world is wrong with you?’”

Everitt got up to investigate and saw two young men outside his back door. One had a handgun, and the other was using a crowbar to try and pry the door open, he said.

Everitt said by the time he retrieved a handgun and returned to the kitchen, the would-be intruders had already fled. Everitt told the newspaper that he did not call the police.

He said the situation could have been different without Bandit.

“It did not turn into a confrontational situation, thank goodness,” Everitt said. “But I think it’s only because of the cat.”

Everitt adopted Bandit from the Tupelo-Lee Humane Society four years ago.

Categories
Business

Early AirTree funds marked down 18pc on massive Canva valuation cut

Early AirTree funds marked down 18pc on massive Canva valuation cut

“This quarter, we have marked down a small subset of late-stage companies that have a large impact on our funds’ holding value.

“These markdowns aren’t a reflection of our conviction in the relevant companies. They’re an acknowledgment of comparable movements in public for our material, late-stage positions.”

While AirTree’s accounts have been audited since the fund launched in 2014, it was the first time it had an independent valuation conducted, which was done by big four accounting firm EY.

The move by AirTree follows the country’s other biggest VC funds, Blackbird Ventures and Square Peg Capital, which also marked down Canva by 36 per cent to $US25.6 billion, wiping $US14.4 billion of its value.

It is understood the local funds joined forces to get an independent assessment of Canva’s valuation, with the support of the superannuation funds invested in them, leading to the consistency in their mark-downs.

The decision from the local VCs followed US-based investors Franklin Templeton and T.Rowe Price making moves earlier this year to mark down the value of Canva in some of their funds.

right-balance

As part of AirTree’s quarterly update to investors, it also shared performance metrics of its funds, stating that to date, it has had 11 full or partial exits, at an average of 2.1 times the value in AirTree’s books.

“This gives us some comfort that we’ve struck the right balance on
holding valuations,” AirTree wrote.

Other later-stage companies owned by AirTree include Employment Hero, Pet Circle, education marketplace Go1 (which recently doubled its valuation and raised another $US100 million) and residential solar power buy now, pay later financier Brighte, which laid off 15 per cent of its workforce in June.

AirTree also revealed in its letter that it had sold part of its core 2014 fund last year, which delivered a 3.3 times return on capital to investors, and realized an internal rate of return of 80 per cent, putting it in the top 5 per cent of funds globally of that vintage.

AirTree managing partner Craig Blair said the fund expected to maintain its historical pace of investment, despite the tech market downturn, and AirTree’s focus would be on backing companies that were still early in their journeys.

“Like any industry, we can make mistakes and get too far over our skis and calling us out and being grounded is important if you’re serious about building a long-term venture fund,” he said.

“Yes, we have companies that may not make it. Failure is apart of our industry. But, at the core, we have very, very smart, talented people choosing careers in entrepreneurship… and we firmly believe tech will solve some of the world’s biggest problems, be it in energy, health or food.”

The VC fund announced in February that it had raised $700 million across three new investment vehicles, including the biggest seed fund in the country, and a dedicated fund for Web3 companies.

State of the market

In the first six months of the year AirTree invested more than the fund did at the start of 2021, in contrast to Blackbird and Square Peg.

There has been a substantial contraction in deal values ​​and volumes across the local market, with the latest Cut Through Venture figures indicating $228 million was invested across 35 deals in July. This was almost two thirds less than the previous year, and down $181 million on June this year.

The tough funding market has led start-ups to lay off staff and alter investment plans to extend their capital runways. Some have also already collapsed, including IPO hopeful Metigy which was raising capital at a $1 billion valuation, a property tech start-up founded by an ex-Macquarie Group team called Yabonza, and multiple grocery delivery players.

While the AirTree letter said the next few years hold a “unique opportunity” for companies that can operate efficiently to recruit more easily and take market share, the VC cautioned that capital efficiency would be paramount.

“For those unable to extend runway sufficiently, we’ll lean in to help portfolio companies fundraise,” the letter said. “We anticipate some down rounds, and a higher failure rate than in recent years.”

When asked how long the downturn would last, Mr Blair said trying to pick the market cycle was a “mug’s game”. “The companies we invest in are driven by structural tailwinds, they’re not cyclical,” he said.

“We’re in the business of making eight to 10-year bets and that’s what our investors expect from us.”

Categories
Australia

Murray system reaches full allocation before spring making river operators and landholders ‘nervous’

Water released from a large dam.

Authorities are warning landholders downstream of the Hume Dam near Albury-Wodonga to prepare for flooding as spring approaches.

Up to 100 millimetres of rain is predicted this week in Victoria’s north-east and the New South Wales Southern Riverina region with Upper Murray, Mitta Mitta, Kiewa, Ovens, and King rivers expected to see flooding.

After a fairly dry July, Hume Dam is sitting at 92 per cent capacity and is expected to fill this season.

The dam filled in September last year.

Yesterday the Murray-Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) advised landholders downstream from Hume Dam “to be flood ready as we enter the wettest period for southern basin catchments.”

MDBA executive director of river management Andrew Reynolds said the Hume Dam currently had 250 gigalitres of airspace available before the dam was considered full.

“We’ve been in close contact with the Bureau of Meteorology, we’re anticipating that we will be able to manage this rain event with the airspace that we have got,” Mr Reynolds said.

“We will make further releases to preserve further airspace in advance of future events.”

Farmers downstream of Hume Dam said the abundance of water already in the system was “very concerning.”

Chairman of the Murray River Action Group, Richard Sarsgood, said landholders along the Murray would be checking storage levels every day in anticipation of flooding.

“Everybody is watching this coming rain event and we’ll see how much airspace it soaks up in Hume Dam,” he said.

“By the next rain event people will start looking at moving stock to higher ground or out on agistment.”

Murray at full allocation

Irrigation season officially starts on August 15. Already Victoria irrigators have their 100 per cent high reliability allocation.

A dam wall has water being released.
Hume Dam reached capacity in September 2021 for the first time since 2016.(Rural ABC: Annie Brown )

Resource manager with Goulburn Murray Water, Mark Bailey, said this was the earliest the system had reached full allocation in 20 years.

“The last time we were at this level was 2002/2003. It’s something that we haven’t seen in a very long time,” Mr Bailey said.

Authorities are anticipating a wetter year, warning irrigators and landholders to expect more water.

“It’s something that makes a river operator quite nervous in terms of what’s happening with potential inflows and where the dams are,” Mr Bailey said.

‘High probability’ Dartmouth will spill

Further upstream from Lake Hume, Victoria’s largest capacity dam in Dartmouth is sitting at around 95 per cent capacity, holding 3.8 million megalitres of water.

The view of Dartmouth Dam's signage over the water.
Dartmouth Dam is Victoria’s largest storage with a capacity of 4 million megalitres.(Rural ABC: Annie Brown)

The last time Dartmouth dam spilled was in October 1996, and excitement has been building that the mega dam could overflow for the first time in more than a quarter of a century.

“There’s a reasonably high probability that Dartmouth will fill this year,” MDBA’s Andrew Reynolds said.

“It is a much bigger storage than Hume, however it’s also has a much smaller catchment upstream, so the inflows are not necessarily as large.

“We’re not pre-releasing water from Dartmouth because it would just make its way into Hume and we would have more water to manage there.

“At the moment it’s better that we protect the airspace at Hume Dam.”

Living on the floodplain

A full river.
The Murray system has reached full water allocation.(Rural ABC: Annie Brown)

Richard Sarsgood has been farming along the Murray River outside Howlong, NSW, for 66 years.

Among the 120 members of the River Action Group living between Lake Hume to Yarrawonga, Mr Sarsgood said there was a higher concern for flooding this year with an abundance of water already in the system in August.

“There’s a lot of concerned landholders and tourism operators because the system has been fully charged since February,” Mr Sarsgood said.

“With the rain event this week, and future events, there’s a lot of concern there’s going to be repeat flooding like in previous years.

“To the MDBA’s credit, they have drawn Hume dam down to 92 per cent which is a step in a right direction.

“However with Dartmouth so full, and the Bureau of Meteorology predicting a wetter than average next three months, we are really concerned the flooding will be heading our way.”

.

Categories
US

Trump-backed Republicans win GOP nominations for US Senate and secretary of state in Arizona, CNN projects

Trump-backed Republicans win GOP nominations for US Senate and secretary of state in Arizona, CNN projects

Blake Masters, the onetime venture capitalist, will secure the Republican nomination for the US Senate, while Arizona Republicans have chosen state Rep. Mark Finchem, an election denier, as their nominee to take the helm of the state’s election machinery, CNN projects. And in the attorney general’s race, Trump’s preferred candidate, election denier Abraham Hamadeh, won the Republican nomination, CNN also projects.

Masters will face Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly, who was unopposed in his primary Tuesday, in what’s expected to be one of the nation’s most competitive, and expensive, midterm match-ups, with control of the 50-50 Senate on the line.

Masters was chief operating officer of GOP meganor Peter Thiel’s investment firm, and his campaign was backed by more than $15 million in spending by Thiel.

Six takeaways from Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Arizona and Washington primaries
Masters, who has spread lies about the results of the 2020 election and accused Democrats of trying to “change the demographics” of the country, defeated businessman Jim Lamon and Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, among others, in the GOP primary Tuesday.

Finchem is aiming to be the chief elections officer in a state that conducts its voting largely by mail and has been the target of a series of conspiracy theories advanced by Trump and his allies, who falsely allege that the 2020 election was stolen from the former President . The Arizona secretary of state is the state’s second-highest executive elected official and first in line to succeed the governor, as the state does not have a lieutenant governor.

Finchem was a member of the far-right “Oath Keepers” in 2014 and was an organizer of the “Stop the Steal” movement spurred by Trump’s lies about election fraud.

He’ll face the winner of the Democratic primary between Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes and state Rep. Reginald Bolding.

Finchem has said the state legislature should be able to overturn the will of voters in presidential elections — a position that, if embraced by Republicans after November’s election, could lead to a crisis in the 2024 election in one of the nation’s most competitive battleground states. .

Finchem believes the legislature should be able to overturn voters’ will. Two other Republican candidates in the race supported stricter election laws but rejected the kinds of lies about election fraud that Finchem has advanced.

.

Categories
Business

‘World’s cheapest green hydrogen’ | Start-up with ultra-efficient electrolyser to develop pilot factory after securing $29m

'World's cheapest green hydrogen' | Start-up with ultra-efficient electrolyser to develop pilot factory after securing $29m

Australian start-up Hysata that says it has developed the world’s most efficient electrolyser has attracted A$42.5m ($29.4m) in an oversubscribed Series A funding round.

The money will be used to grow the company’s team and “develop a pilot manufacturing facility” for its innovative “capillary-fed” technology, which it says will be able to deliver the “world’s lowest-cost green hydrogen” due to its superior efficiency .

In simple terms, the largest element of the levelised cost of green hydrogen (LCOH) is the cost of the renewable electricity used, so the less power an electrolyser needs to produce each kilogram of Htwothe lower the LCOH it would be.

Hysata says its capillary-fed electrolyser (CFE) requires just 41.5kWh of electricity per kg of hydrogen. The industry benchmark for highly efficient electrolysers is 50kWh/kg.

“The Hysata electrolyser operates at 95% system efficiency (41.5 kWh/kg), delivering a giant leap in performance and cost over incumbent technologies, which typically operate at 75% or less [52.5kWh/kg],” the company says. The efficiency figure is a reference to the 39.4kWh (HHV) of energy contained in a kilogram of Htwo.

“This high efficiency, coupled with the simple approach to mass manufacturing and low supply chain risk puts the company on a path to delivering the world’s lowest cost green hydrogen.”

Article continues below the warning

The company explains on its website that a green hydrogen project producing one million tonnes of Htwo per year using 52.5kWh/kg electrolysers would require 14GW of wind and solar power at a world-class location. With the CFE, the same developers would only need 11GW of renewable energy — a cost saving of about $3bn (assuming an average capital cost for renewables of $1m per MW).

Hysata says the CFE offers “step-change improvement over existing designs”, not just in terms of the electrolyser stack, but also a simplified balance of plant (BOP) and modular manufacturing that is easy to automate and scale.

Graphic explaining Hysata’s groundbreaking technology. Photo: Hysata

The electrolyser offers a “low-cost design, based on earth-abundant materials”, the company says — a reference to the high-cost iridium required in PEM electrolysers — while the “high cell efficiency eliminates the need for expensive cooling”.

The “integrated BOP and stack design provides an optimized turnkey system that delivers high purity green hydrogen at the lowest levelized cost”, the Hysata website adds.

[Hysata] is set to be a major player in the global electrolyser industry

The company plans to reach gigawatt-scale production in 2025.

As part of the Series A funding round, the Australian government-owned Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) invested A$10m — adding to its initial A$750,000 cash injection, with further investments coming from Danish wind turbine manufacturer Vestas’ investment arm, Vestas ventures; UK cleantech investor Kiko Ventures; intellectual property commercialization company IP Group Australia; Aussie superannuation fund Hostplus and Australian steel producer BlueScope’s investment arm, BlueScopeX.

“Having assessed scores of electrolyser technologies in my 20 years in cleantech, Hysata’s technology stands out as a true breakthrough,” said Kiko Ventures founding partner Robert Trezona.

“The company has redefined the core cell architecture for alkaline electrolysis, producing a practical and scalable solution with game changing efficiency. Hysata has the potential to be a globally significant company in the hydrogen economy and we look forward to supporting its growth, especially here in Europe.”

The view was echoed by CEFC boss Ian Learmouth.

“The CEFC is proud to continue our support for Hysata, which is set to be a major player in the global electrolyser industry,” he said.

Hysata CEO Paul Barrett added: “Over the last 12-18 months, Hysata has been interacting with dozens of major customers globally. The impact our efficiency and system simplicity delivers to customers’ project economics truly moves the needle.

“We look forward to continuing to work with our shareholders and customers to bring this much needed technology to market as soon as possible.”

Categories
Australia

Parents ask if councils can step in to solve regional ‘childcare deserts’

Mum in dressing gown smiles for a selfie with three young girls in a garden.

Port Lincoln mother of four Krystal Miller lives with debilitating Crohn’s disease and after-school-hours care has become essential for her family.

However, the past six months have been a roller-coaster ride as BYK Kids after-school-hours care faced an uncertain future following the non-renewal of its lease.

Last week it closed its doors to more than 100 families after being unable to find new rental premises.

A photo of care provider staff and children sitting down looking sad.
BYK Kids was the only after-school-hours care service in Port Lincoln.(ABC Eyre Peninsula: Bernadette Clarke)

Ms Miller said the closure would have an impact on her life, and many other parents.

“I am immune-compromised and when I’m sick, it’s been so important to be able to have somewhere that I can trust with my kids,” Ms Miller said.

“So now that’s gone, I have no options anymore — it’s quite stressful.

BYK Kids was the only service offering after-school care and vacation care in the region.

But Ms Miller still counts herself lucky because her parents live in Port Lincoln, and while they both work, they do help.

“There are a lot of professional women and men here in Port Lincoln, who are not able to actually go back to work because there’s nowhere to put their kids,” Ms Miller said.

Program manager Cassandra Bilney held back tears on the final day of care after six years of helping Port Lincoln families.

“I don’t know what the solution is,” Ms Bilney said.

“I don’t know if the council could look at having something council owned but the lack of services is definitely a problem.”

.

Categories
US

Pelosi offers praise, support for Taiwan during a visit that angered China

Pelosi offers praise, support for Taiwan during a visit that angered China

  • Pelosi tells President Tsai “we will not abandon Taiwan”
  • China steps up military activity around Taiwan
  • Taiwan’s military increases alertness level
  • China summoned US ambassador in Beijing

TAIPEI, Aug 3 (Reuters) – US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi left Taiwan on Wednesday after pledging solidarity and hailing its democracy, leaving a trail of Chinese anger over her brief visit to the self-ruled island that Beijing claims as its own.

China demonstrated its outrage over the highest-level US visit to the island in 25 years with a burst of military activity in surrounding waters, summoning the US ambassador in Beijing and halting several agricultural imports from Taiwan.

Some of China’s planned military exercises were to take place within Taiwan’s 12 nautical mile sea and air territory, according to Taiwan’s defense ministry, an unprecedented move a senior defense official described to reporters as “amounting to a sea and air blockade of Taiwan”.

Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com

Taiwan scrambled jets on Wednesday to warn away 27 Chinese aircraft in its air defense zone, the island’s defense ministry said, adding that 22 of them crossed the median line separating the island from China. read more

Pelosi arrived with a congressional delegation on her unannounced but closely watched visit late on Tuesday, defying China’s repeated warnings, in a trip that she said demonstrated an unwavering US commitment to Taiwan’s democracy. read more

“Our delegation came to Taiwan to make unequivocally clear that we will not abandon Taiwan,” Pelosi told Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, who Beijing suspects of pushing for formal independence – a red line for China. read more

“Now, more than ever, America’s solidarity with Taiwan is crucial, and that’s the message we are bringing here today,” Pelosi said during her roughly 19-hour visit.

A long-time China critic, especially on human rights, Pelosi met with a former Tiananmen activist, a Hong Kong bookseller who had been detained by China and a Taiwanese activist recently released by China.

The last US House speaker to go to Taiwan was Newt Gingrich in 1997. But Pelosi’s visit comes amid sharply deteriorating Sino-US relations, and during the past quarter century China has emerged as a far more powerful economic, military and geopolitical force.

China considers Taiwan part of its territory and has never renounced using force to bring it under its control. The United States warned China against using the visit as a pretext for military action against Taiwan.

In retaliation, China’s customs department announced a suspension of imports of citrus fruits and certain fish – chilled white striped hairtail and frozen horse mackerel – from Taiwan, while its commerce ministry banned export of natural sand to Taiwan.

While there was little sign of protest against US targets or consumer goods, there was a significant police presence outside the US consulate in Shanghai and what appeared to be more security than usual outside the embassy in Beijing.

Fury on the mainland over Pelosi’s defiance of Beijing was evident all over Chinese social media, with one blogger railing: “this old she-devil, she actually dares to come!” Pelosi is 82. read more

US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi talks with Taiwan Foreign Minister Joseph Wu before boarding a plane at Taipei Songshan Airport in Taipei, Taiwan August 3, 2022. Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs/Handout via REUTERS

MILITARY DRILLS

Shortly after Pelosi’s arrival, China’s military announced joint air and sea drills near Taiwan and test launches of conventional missiles in the sea east of the island, with Chinese state news agency Xinhua describing live-fire drills and other exercises around Taiwan from Thursday to Sunday.

China’s foreign ministry said Pelosi’s visit seriously damages peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, “has a severe impact on the political foundation of China-US relations, and seriously infringes upon China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

Before Pelosi’s arrival, Chinese warplanes buzzed the line dividing the Taiwan Strait. The Chinese military said it was on high alert and would launch “targeted military operations” in response to Pelosi’s visit.

White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said after Pelosi’s arrival in Taiwan that the United States “is not going to be intimidated” by China’s threats or bellicose rhetoric and that there is no reason her visit should precipitate a crisis or conflict.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed the potential for Pelosi’s visit with counterpart Wang Yi during a G20 meeting in Bali last month, and said any such trip would be entirely Pelosi’s decision and independent of the US government, a senior US official said on Wednesday. read more

‘CHINA’S AMBITION’

The United States has no official diplomatic relations with Taiwan but is bound by American law to provide it with the means to defend itself. China views visits by US officials to Taiwan as sending an encouraging signal to the pro-independence camp on the island. Taiwan rejects China’s sovereignty claims, saying only the Taiwanese people can decide the island’s future.

Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov said during a visit to Myanmar that Pelosi’s trip was a deliberate US attempt to irritate China. read more

North Korea’s foreign ministry criticized Pelosi’s visit as US “reckless interference” in China’s internal affairs, the official KCNA said. read more

Taiwan’s military increased its alertness level. Its defense ministry said China was attempting to threaten key ports and cities with drills in the surrounding waters.

“The so-called drill areas are falling within the busiest international channels in the Indo-Pacific region,” a senior Taiwan official familiar with its security planning told Reuters.

“We can see China’s ambition: to make the Taiwan Strait non-international waters, as well as making the entire area west of the first island chain in the western pacific its sphere of influence,” the official said.

China’s foreign ministry said it has not seen its military drills around Taiwan causing any freedom-of-navigation issues.

Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com

Reporting by Yimou Lee and Sarah Wu; Writing by Tony Munroe; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore, Stephen Coates and Will Dunham

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

.