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The Starlink system has been vital to Zelenskiy’s forces, but it can’t be good to have a volatile billionaire playing a crucial role in a major European war
In February 2022, as Russian tanks rumbled into Ukraine, a cyber-attack took down the satellite system run by Viasat that was providing high-speed communications for Ukrainian military forces, rendering them instantly blind, deaf and dumb. With his forces knocked offline, the Ukrainian digital minister sent a plea to an American billionaire, one Elon Musk, for help. Within hours, Musk responded that his system had been activated in Ukraine. Days later Starlink terminals began to arrive.
Pause for context update. Musk is the founder and Supreme Leader of , an innovative firm that has found a way of building reusable heavy rockets that can launch cargo into Earth orbit and safely return ready to be used again, which is a very big deal, and probably why Nasa has become one of its regular customers. In 2019, SpaceX started launching smallish – “sofa-sized”, according to the New York Times – communications satellites into low-Earth orbit with the aim of eventually providing a global mobile phone system called Starlink. Thus far, it has mostly been providing internet connectivity to 60 countries via about 4,500 satellites, but it’s said that Musk plans to have 42,000 of them up there eventually, which is an awful lot of flying sofas.

Typhoon Saola has made landfall in southern China after leaving a trail of destruction in Hong Kong. Thousands of trees were felled and boats sank in the city's harbour. Nearly 900,000 people had been evacuated in Hong Kong and China while business, transport and schools were suspended in advance of the typhoon making landfall

Storm hit overnight as business, transport and schools suspended in Hong Kong and Guangdong
Typhoon Saola has made landfall in southern China after nearly 900,000 people were moved to safety and most of Hong Kong and other parts of coastal southern China suspended business, transport and schools.
Guangdong province’s meteorological bureau said the powerful storm churned into an outlying district of the city of Zhuhai, just south of Hong Kong at 3.30am local time. It was forecast to move in a south-westerly direction along the Guangdong coast at a speed of about 10mph (17km/h), gradually weakening before heading out to sea.

A pamphlet produced by the Overseas Security Advisory Council in the U.S. Department of State reminds American students studying abroad in China to “have no expectations of privacy in public or ...

Real Chinese cooking is quite different from much of the Americanized fare you find stateside, but some traditional dishes rise above.

Real Chinese cooking is quite different from much of the Americanized fare you find stateside, but some traditional dishes rise above.

In late July, a Chinese national named Lu Ke was deported from Malawi after spending a year in prison. The incident, reported by the BBC, caused outrage among the people of sub-Saharan Africa. Lu Ke ...

The storm brought heavy rains and strong winds to the region, battering Hong Kong. Another typhoon was forecast to hit China’s east coast on Sunday.

Westside Los Angeles has historically been a Chinese food desert. But now Asian American Angelenos are eagerly anticipating the opening of a 99 Ranch in Westwood.

A California-based energy company the Biden administration greenlit for a Michigan electric vehicle battery plant project has considerable ties to the Chinese Communist Party — a revelation national ...

Zunyu Zhao and Xionwei Xiao made the plea in a California federal court for smuggling the marine life from Mexico
Wildlife traffickers pleaded guilty this week in federal court in California to illegally importing endangered sea cucumbers – which are prized in China for food and medicine and as a reputed aphrodisiac – from Mexico.
Zunyu Zhao and Xionwei Xiao were charged with conspiracy and illegal importing of brown sea cucumbers worth over $10,000 from 2017 to 2019 and are scheduled to be sentenced in September and November, respectively.

China has issued its highest flood warning as Typhoon Saola continues its journey toward the country’s south-eastern coast. The storm has clocked wind speeds of up to 209km/h threatening major urban areas including Hong Kong and Guangdong. Rail and air transport in Hong Kong have been suspended as local authorities warn people to remain indoors and away from windows