South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
China slams latest US export restrictions on semiconductor tech
BEIJING — China on Saturday criticized the latest U.S. decision to tighten export controls that would make it harder for China to obtain and manufacture advanced computing chips, calling it a violation of international economic and trade rules that will “isolate and backfire” on the U.S.
“Out of the need to maintain its sci-tech hegemony, the U.S. abuses export control measures to maliciously block and suppress Chinese companies,” said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning.
“It will not only damage the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies, but also affect American companies’ interests,” she said.
Mao also said that the U.S. “weaponization and politicization” of science and technology, as well as economic and trade issues, will not stop China’s progress.
She was speaking after the U.S. on Friday updated export controls that included adding certain advanced, high-performance computing chips and semiconductor manufacturing equipment to its list, as well as new license requirements for items that would be used in a supercomputer or for semiconductor development in China.
The U.S. said that the export controls were added as part of ongoing efforts to protect U.S. national security and foreign policy interests.
U.S.-China relations have deteriorated in recent years over technology and security issues. The U.S. has implemented a raft of measures and restrictions designed to prevent China from obtaining chip technology, while China has earmarked billions for investment into the production of semiconductors.
The tensions have affected semiconductor companies in the U.S. and globally that either export chips or manufacture chips in China. Semiconductor companies such as Nvidia and AMD have seen a 40% decline in stock price over the past year.
“We understand the goal of ensuring national security and urge the U.S. government to implement the rules in a targeted way — and in collaboration with international partners — to help level the playing field and mitigate unintended harm to U.S. innovation,” the Semiconductor Industry Association, which represents the industry in the U.S., said in a statement.
Iran protests: Anti-government demonstrations erupted Saturday in several locations across Iran as the most sustained protests in years against a deeply entrenched theocracy entered their fourth week. At least two people were killed.
Marchers chanted antigovernment slogans and twirled headscarves in repudiation of coercive religious dress codes. In some areas, merchants shuttered shops in response to a call by activists for a commercial strike or to protect their wares from damage.
The protests erupted Sept. 17 after the burial of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish woman who died in the custody of Iran’s morality police. Amini had been detained for an alleged violation of strict Islamic dress codes for women. Since then, protests spread across the country and have been met by a fierce crackdown, in which dozens are estimated to have been killed and hundreds arrested.
Ireland explosion: The death toll from a gas station
explosion that shattered a small village in northwest Ireland rose to 10 on Saturday, and emergency workers who combed through piles of rubble said they did not expect to find more bodies.
Irish police said no one remained missing after Friday’s explosion in Creeslough, County Donegal. Police are investigating the cause of the blast, and Superintendent David Kelly said evidence “is pointing toward a tragic accident.”
Ireland’s police force, An Garda Siochana, said the midafternoon explosion killed four men, three women, two teenagers and a girl of primary school age. Eight people were hospitalized — one in critical condition — after the blast destroyed the Applegreen service station in the community of about 400 people near Ireland’s Atlantic coast.
India bus fire: A bus caught fire after hitting a truck on a highway in western India early Saturday, killing at
least 12 passengers, an official said.
Another 43 people with serious burns were taken to a hospital in Nashik, a city in Maharashtra state about 120 miles northeast of Mumbai, said police officer Bhagwan Adke.
Most passengers were sleeping when the bus caught fire around 5 a.m., the Press Trust of India news agency said, and the vehicle was completely burned.
Hundreds of thousands of people are killed or injured annually on India’s roads. Most accidents are blamed on reckless driving, poorly maintained roads and aging vehicles.
Tropical weather: Tropical Storm Julia was bearing down on several Colombian islands Saturday afternoon and began heading quickly toward Nicaragua, forecasters said.
The storm, expected to become a hurricane late Saturday, was about 80 miles east of Isla de San Andres, a Colombian island,
as of 2 p.m., with maximum sustained winds of 65 mph, the National Hurricane Center said in an advisory.
The storm was about 225 miles east of Bluefields, a municipality on the east coast of Nicaragua.
A hurricane warning from the Colombian government for the islands of Providencia, San Andres and Santa Catalina was in effect, as well as one for parts of Nicaragua. Tropical storm warnings were in effect for the Pacific Coast of Nicaragua and Honduras. A tropical storm watch was in effect for the entire coast of El Salvador.
Forecasters warned of life-threatening flash floods and mudslides from heavy rains over Central America through the weekend.
Ind. boy starved: An Indiana man has been sentenced to 65 years in prison for abusing his 12-year-old son and starving the boy to death.
Monroe Circuit Judge Christine Talley Haseman said Friday that
nothing could justify the physical abuse and withholding of food and water that Luis Eduardo Posso Jr. inflicted on his young child.
Before issuing her decision, Haseman detailed the brutal treatment that Eduardo Posso endured and showed photographs of the boy taken just a few years apart.
By the time of his death in 2019, Eduardo was the size of a typical 4-year-old and had been punched, slapped, kicked, shocked with a dog collar and chained up by his father and stepmother, Haseman said.
Posso’s behavior was “incomprehensible, heinous and cruel,” she said.
Posso pleaded guilty to murder in June and prosecutors agreed not to seek life in prison without parole, along with dismissing charges of neglect, criminal confinement and battery.
His wife, Dayana MedinaFlores, pleaded guilty to murder and received the same sentence in 2021 tied to her stepson’s death.