China stokes Taiwan tensions after vessel accused of 'severing critical undersea cables'

A Chinese-Owned cargo ship, the Shunxing39, has been accused of cutting a subsea cable off Taiwan's northern coast on 3 January.

The vessel is believed to have caused damage to a communications cable close to the port of Keelung on the Island's North coast.

The incident highlights the vulnerability of crucial offshore communications and energy infrastructure and the difficulties in prosecuting sabotage.

The latest occurrence follows incidents where Chinese ships came under scrutiny when fibre optic cables in the Baltic Sea were severed last November and a gas pipeline and cable were damaged there in October 2023.

While the ship sails under Cameroon’s flag, Taiwan officials said it belongs to Jie Yang trading limited of Hong Kong headed by Guo Wenjie, a citizen of China.

Reference Sources

1. ft - Taiwan asks South Korea for help over Chinese ship after subsea cable damaged
2. express - China stokes Taiwan tensions after vessel accused of 'severing critical undersea cables'
3. thesun - RED MENACE Fears of Chinese sabotage as ‘deep sea cable is cut off coast of Taiwan’ days after Russian ship ‘dragged anchor’
4. politico - Taiwan suspects China of latest attack on undersea cables

Amazon’s satellite project pushes ahead with UK broadband plans

(Source: Shutterstock)

Amazon's satellite operation, project Kuiper, is pushing ahead with plans to launch a Broadband service in the UK, as the Tech group founded by Jeff Bezos attempts to take on Elon musk's Starlink.

Kuiper is not yet operational but has previously said it expects to begin deploying its satellite Constellation in early 2025 and that it plans to roll out its Broadband service later this year.

It aims to compete with Starlink in low earth orbit, a region of space where satellites can provide Broadband to areas across the globe poorly served by traditional Internet services.

Reference Sources

1. ft - Amazon’s satellite project pushes ahead with UK broadband plans
2. theguardian - Amazon aims to branch into UK internet market with satellite broadband plan

Tesla data helped police after truck explosion; experts have privacy concerns

(Source: Shutterstock)

Tesla's recent investigation into the driver of one of its Cybertrucks that exploded in Las Vegas has raised concerns about the company's data collection practices.

The company collected detailed data on the driver's movements, including contact information, call logs, and texts, in response to the explosion.

However, privacy experts have questioned whether the company is violating the privacy rights of drivers.

As vehicles become more like computers on wheels, the question of whether they are being used to spy on drivers is becoming more important.

Reference Sources

1. usnews - Tesla Data Helped Police After Las Vegas Truck Explosion, but Experts Have Wider Privacy Concerns
2. apnews - Tesla data helped police after Las Vegas truck explosion, but experts have wider privacy concerns
3. voanews - Tesla data helped police after truck explosion; experts have privacy concerns
4. latimes - Is your car spying on you? What it means that Tesla shared data in the Las Vegas explosion

The CommonWealth English daily news digest is a service curated by CommonWealth English team with the help of AI tools.

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