LONDON (AFP) – Britain on Tuesday ousted China General Nuclear from construction of its new Sizewell C power station, further cutting controversial economic ties with the world’s second biggest economy. The CGN announcement came one day after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak warned that the “golden era” of UK-China relations was “over”, adding Beijing posed a “systemic challenge” to UK interests and values. Tuesday’s announcement comes also amid a diplomatic storm over the arrest and alleged assault of a BBC journalist covering Covid protests in China. Sunak’s Conservative government is stripping CGN of its controversial 20-percent Sizewell stake under plans to form a joint venture with remaining French partner EDF. London last month ordered a Chinese-owned company to divest most of Britain’s biggest semiconductor maker -- a leading UK industrial asset -- after a national security probe.

 

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KYIV (Reuters) -- European countries should double their defense expenditure because of Russia’s war in Ukraine, Estonia’s foreign minister said, adding that his own country planned to raise national defense spending to 3% of GDP. Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu made his comments in an interview with Reuters during a trip to Kyiv with six other foreign ministers. The visit was intended to show support for Kyiv as it struggles with power outages following a wave of drone and missile strikes by Russia, which invaded Ukraine in February. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said last week that countries in the military alliance, of which Estonia is a member, may decide to aim to spend more on defense than their current target of 2% of national output. Many NATO allies have already increased their military spending since the Ukraine war in February.

 

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SEOUL (Reuters) -- South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol warned of an unprecedented joint response with allies if North Korea goes ahead with a nuclear test, and urged China to help dissuade the North from pursuing banned development of nuclear weapons and missiles. In a wide-ranging interview with Reuters, Yoon called on China, North Korea’s closest ally, to fulfill its responsibilities as a permanent member of the UN Security Council. He said not doing so would lead to an influx of military assets to the region. When asked what South Korea and its allies, the United States and Japan, would do if North Korea conducts a new nuclear test, Yoon said the response “will be something that has not been seen before”, but declined to elaborate what that would entail. Amid a record year for missile tests, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said this week his country intends to have the world’s most powerful nuclear force. South Korean and U.S. officials say Pyongyang may be preparing to resume testing nuclear weapons for the first time since 2017.

 

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JERSEY CITY, N.J. (AP) -- Cryptocurrency lender BlockFi filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Monday, the latest casualty of the collapse of crypto exchange FTX. New Jersey-based BlockFi had been struggling for much of this year but was given a lifeline this summer in the form of an FTX line of credit. FTX’s own bankruptcy, however, all but sealed BlockFi’s financial fate. BlockFi suspended withdrawals after FTX’s failure, and it had hired bankruptcy specialists in recent days. BlockFi was one of several crypto currency lenders to pop up in recent years. The company gave loans to customers using their crypto assets as collateral. The severe drop in the value of bitcoin, ethereum and other cryptocurrencies made the collateral that BlockFi had secured often worth less than the loans it had outstanding. In its bankruptcy filing, BlockFi claimed more than 100,000 creditors, and liabilities ranging from $1 billion to $10 billion.  

 

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ROME (AFP) – Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said she will not withdraw her defamation suit against journalist Roberto Saviano, in an interview published Tuesday, despite criticism that her position of power makes it an unfair trial. The far-right leader sued anti-mafia reporter Saviano for alleged defamation after he called her a “bastard” in a 2020 televised outburst over her attitude towards vulnerable migrants. Press freedom watchdogs and supporters of Saviano have called for the trial, which opened this month, to be scrapped. Saviano, best known for his international mafia bestseller “Gomorrah”, faces up to three years in prison if convicted.

 

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 WASHINGTON (AFP) -- Twitter owner Elon Musk opened fire against Apple over its tight control of what is allowed on the App Store, saying the iPhone maker has threatened to oust his recently acquired social media platform. Musk also joined the chorus crying foul over a 30 percent fee Apple collects on transactions via its App Store -- the sole gateway for applications to get onto its billion plus mobile devices. A series of tweets fired off by Musk included a meme of a car with his first name on it veering onto a highway off-ramp labeled “Go to War,” instead of continuing onwards towards “Pay 30%.” The billionaire CEO also tweeted that Apple has “threatened to withhold Twitter from its App Store, but won’t tell us why.” Musk on Monday accused Apple of also having “mostly stopped advertising on Twitter.” “Do they hate free speech in America?” he asked, before replying with a tweet tagging Apple CEO Tim Cook.