China: Xi Jinping unveils new cyber defense force

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>The news feed for Saturday April 20

11:14 a.m. – Tourism: France creates its destination of excellence label

Tourism companies will be able to obtain a destination of excellence label if they guarantee a high level of quality of welcome and services as well as a high level of requirements in terms of sustainable development and environmental protection, according to a decree published on Saturday. The system is managed by Atout France and comes into force on May 1. Once awarded, this label will be valid for five years and can be renewed.

The decree which creates this label, published in the Official Journal, details the labeling criteria: the quality of reception and services, including comfort, know-how and interpersonal skills of operators and staff, mastery of foreign languages, the quality of information delivered to tourist customers as well as monitoring their satisfaction. But also the level of requirements of the measures taken to protect the environment and promote co-responsible tourism.

11:05 a.m. – Red Sea: Germany will send a new frigate in August

The Hamburg frigate will take over from the Hessen building which is leaving, as planned, the intervention zone on Saturday at the end of its mission which began on February 23, indicated Boris Pistorius, the German Minister of Defense, in a press release. The Hessen which had been sent to the region as part of the European Union mission Aspides (shield in ancient Greek) to protect commercial shipping with some 240 military personnel on board. It escorted 27 merchant ships in the area of intervention and repelled Houthi drones and missiles four times, according to the press release.

10:45 a.m. – London temporarily returns treasures stolen during colonization to Ghana

These 32 gold and silver objects looted from the Asante kingdom more than 150 years ago come from the British Museum and the Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A). Ivor Agyeman-Duah, the advisor to the Asante king who negotiated the return of the objects, explained that they had been loaned to the palace for a maximum period of six years.

Under an agreement with local authorities, these antiquities, including gold and silver costumes associated with the Asante royal court, will be on display from May 1 at the Manhyia Palace Museum in Kumasi city, on the occasion of the celebration of the silver jubilee of the Asante King, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, which will last all year.

10:15 a.m. – The Gaza war: has left more than 34,000 dead, according to Hamas

The Hamas Health Minister announces a new toll of 34,049 people killed in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement on October 7. In 24 hours, at least 37 additional deaths have been recorded, according to a press release from the minister, which reports 76,901 wounded in more than six months of war.

9:47 a.m. – Iraq: bombing of a military base leaves one dead and others injured

Questioned by AFP, a military official and an official from the Minister of the Interior were not able to identify those responsible for this aerial bombardment which targeted the Calso base, nor to say whether it was 'a drone strike. The head of the Ministry of the Interior reported one death and eight wounded among the base forces.

9:35 a.m. – Trump trials: death of the man who set himself on fire

Maxwell Azzarello, 37, doused himself with liquid before throwing conspiracy theory pamphlets into the air during jury selection for Donald Trump's trial. He was taken to hospital Friday in in critical condition, where he later died, CBS News confirmed.

9:15 a.m. – Burma: resumption of fighting near the Thai border

After a week of relative calm, a Thai army unit stationed near the border with Burma said fighting had resumed, but no casualties were reported. The clashes broke out near the town of Myawaddy on the Burmese side, a strategic location for trade with Thailand, which shares a 2,400 kilometer-long border with Burma, where a military coup in 2021 reignited the conflict between the junta and its opponents.

8:38 a.m. -Musk postpones trip to India due to Tesla obligations

Unfortunately, Tesla's very onerous obligations require that the India visit be postponed, but I look forward to doing it later this year, he said in a message posted on his social network X. Media reports had suggested that the trip would begin on Sunday and last two days, during which Elon Musk would meet the Indian Prime Minister and companies from the aerospace sector.

Tesla is reportedly scouting for factory locations in India after the government last month reduced import taxes on electric vehicles for international automakers who pledged to invest $500 million and launch local production in the three years. The announcement of the postponement of this trip comes one day after the electric car manufacturer announced the recall of nearly 3,900 Cybertruck vehicles.

8:30 a.m. -Hong Kong regulator to investigate PwC for Evergrande audit

The Hong Kong regulator will open an investigation into the role of PwC in the accounting practices of Chinese real estate giant Evergrande, placed in compulsory liquidation and accused by China of significant fraud. Last month, the company was accused by Chinese authorities of inflating its turnover by $78 billion.

Auditing giant PwC was Evergrande's auditor for more than a decade, before resigning from his post last year due to disagreements over the audit of Evergrande's 2021 accounts. Accounting and Financial Reporting of Hong Kong said Friday that a letter of denunciation had come to its attention.

8:25 a.m. -North Korea claims to be testing a very large warhead

The Missile Directorate of (North Korea) conducted a power test of a very large warhead designed for the + Hwasal-1 Ra-3 + strategic cruise missile, the official North Korean agency said KCNA.Pyongyang also conducted a test launch of a new type of anti-aircraft missile + Pyoljji-1-2 + in the West Sea, also known as the Yellow Sea, KCNA added, specifying that the two tests had been conducted on Friday.

The South Korean army, for its part, declared that it had detected several launches of cruise missiles and anti-aircraft missiles towards the Yellow Sea on Friday around 3:30 p.m. (4:30 p.m. GMT), according to the South Korean agency Yonhap.D According to experts, the cruise missiles tested by Pyongyang are intended to be exported to Russia before being used in the war in Ukraine.

8:23 a.m.-China launches new cyber defense force

Inaugurated with great fanfare by President Xi Jinping and presented as being able to help win modern wars, this information support force (Information Support Force according to its official title in English) is a strategic branch of the armed forces, Wu Qian said on Friday evening. , a spokesperson for the Chinese Minister of Defense.

No details on the precise tasks of this new branch of the army have been revealed. But Wu Qian presented it as having great responsibility in the ability to fight and win modern wars, comments made in a context of recurring tensions with the United States, Taiwan, Japan, India and the Philippines.

8:12 a.m. – Venezuela: opposition designates Machado's replacement, ineligible

The Venezuelan opposition on Friday validated the candidacy of diplomat Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia for the presidential election on July 28 in which he will face the current leader Nicolas Maduro, in place of Maria Corina Machado, who is ineligible. Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia was already registered as a provisional candidate for the Platform of Democratic Unity (PUD), the Venezuelan opposition coalition. Its secretary general, Omar Barboza, announced that the diplomat would be their final candidate.

8:19 a.m. – Tawan says he detected 21 Chinese military planes around the island

Seventeen planes (out of twenty-one) crossed the middle line of the Taiwan Strait, announced the Taiwanese Minister of Defense in a press release, an unofficial demarcation between China and Taiwan that the former does not recognize. The increase in incursions by Chinese aircraft is part of what experts call the gray zone strategy, that is to say, actions of intimidation that do not go as far as acts of war strictly speaking.

8:18 a.m. – United States: Volkswagen employees in Tennessee vote to form a union

Employees at the Chattanooga plant voted 73% to be represented by the UAW (United Auto Workers) automobile union, according to results communicated by Volkswagen.

Until now, the union had not managed to establish itself among any of the non-American manufacturers, the vast majority of whom have taken up residence in the southern states of the United States.

8:17 a.m. – End of debates in the Panama Papers trial

The proceedings in the Panama Papers trial, an international tax evasion scandal revealed in 2016, were closed on Friday, with the court expected to deliver its judgment within 30 days. This deadline may, however, be extended in the case of voluminous files.

The maximum sentence for money laundering — 12 years in prison — was requested Wednesday against the two founders of the Mossack Fonseca law firm, now closed. Sentences of five to 12 years in prison were also requested against 24 other defendants, mainly former employees of the firm. The acquittal of three others was called for.

8:15 a.m. – The United States agrees to withdraw its troops from Niger

The United States gave its agreement on Friday to withdraw from Niger its 1,000 soldiers engaged there in the anti-jihadist fight, announced several American officials, after the denunciation by the military regime in Niamey of a cooperation agreement. The number two of American diplomat, Kurt Campbell, accepted the request of the Nigerian authorities during a meeting in Washington with Prime Minister Ali Mahamane Lamine Zeine, detailed these officials, on condition of anonymity.

The agreement provides for the sending of an American delegation to Niger in the coming days to agree on the details of the withdrawal. Nigerian public television had already announced such a move earlier on Friday. The 1,000 American soldiers present in Niger are engaged in the anti-jihadist fight in the Sahel and have a large drone base in Agadez (north).