Category: WORLD

Washington, Aug 1 (IANS) Two powerful House committees have launched a fresh investigation into DoorDash’s use of a Chinese-developed artificial intelligence model, raising concerns that the growing adoption of Chinese AI by American companies could pose national security, cybersecurity and economic security risks.

The House Select Committee on China and the House Committee on Homeland Security said on Friday they had written to DoorDash co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Tony Xu seeking detailed information about the company’s evaluation and deployment of artificial intelligence models developed in China.

The move expands a congressional investigation that began in April and has already examined other American companies’ use of Chinese open-weight AI models.

In their letter, House Select Committee on China Chairman John Moolenaar and House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Andrew R. Garbarino acknowledged why American companies may be drawn to such models but argued that the security implications require closer examination.

“[T]he Committees recognize that U.S. companies, from large technology firms to startups, may evaluate and deploy PRC-developed open-weight models because they can provide competitive capabilities, lower costs, greater customization, and alternatives to reliance on a small number of proprietary model providers,” they wrote.

“Those practical considerations do not eliminate the need for risk-based safeguards or diminish the national security concerns associated with growing dependence on models developed by entities subject to PRC jurisdiction,” said the letter.

“An effective federal approach should therefore reduce U.S. companies’ reliance on PRC-developed models by strengthening the availability, security, and competitiveness of American open-weight alternatives, while applying appropriately tailored safeguards in sensitive and high-risk applications. This investigation is intended to establish the factual record necessary to inform that approach,” it said.

According to the committees, the investigation is focused on the national security, cybersecurity and economic security implications of American companies integrating Chinese open-weight AI models into consumer platforms, enterprise software and systems that handle sensitive commercial or personal information.

Unlike proprietary AI systems, open-weight models make their underlying parameters publicly available, allowing developers to download, modify and deploy them independently. The committees said this flexibility can reduce costs and increase customisation but also raises concerns about software integrity, supply chain security and the provenance of the underlying technology.

The congressional letter cites public statements by DoorDash co-founder Andy Fang that the company incorporated open-weight models into an internal AI-assisted code review system. According to the committees, DoorDash said it routed more difficult tasks to a US-developed frontier model while assigning lower-level work to Kimi K2.6, an open-weight model developed by China’s Moonshot AI. The company also stated that the new configuration outperformed an earlier setup while lowering costs.

Lawmakers also referred to public statements by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy alleging that Moonshot AI operated a covert platform to conduct large-scale distillation against American AI models and trained models using advanced computing systems it was not authorised to obtain.

Chinese open-weight AI models have become increasingly attractive to businesses because they offer lower operating costs, greater flexibility and the ability to run on a company’s own computing infrastructure rather than through proprietary cloud services. At the same time, policymakers in Washington have intensified scrutiny of Chinese AI developers amid broader strategic competition with Beijing over advanced technologies.

–IANS

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Colombo, Aug 1 (IANS) A three-judge High Court panel in Sri Lanka has sentenced former Inspector General of Police Pujith Jayasundara to death after a majority of judges found him guilty of failing to prevent the 2019 Easter Sunday terror attacks despite receiving prior intelligence.

The court on Friday convicted Jayasundara of dereliction of duty and aiding and abetting murder over his failure to act on warnings that suicide bombers planned to attack Catholic churches and tourist hotels in Colombo and surrounding areas.

Judges Priyantha Liyanage and Thilakaratne Bandara delivered the majority verdict, while Judge Viraj Weerasuriya issued a dissenting judgment, reports Xinhua news agency.

Announcing the majority decision, presiding Judge Liyanage said Jayasundara had served as the country’s police chief at the time and was responsible for protecting citizens and maintaining public security.

The court said Nilantha Jayawardena, then director of the State Intelligence Service, had informed Jayasundara on the evening of April 20, 2019, that suicide attacks were expected against Catholic churches and tourist hotels the following day.

However, Jayasundara failed to take measures to prevent the attacks, the court said.

The majority judges said Jayasundara had neglected his responsibilities as the state official appointed to prevent crime and protect the public. They imposed the death sentence after considering the seriousness of the offences.

In his dissenting judgment, Weerasuriya said the prosecution had failed to prove the charges against Jayasundara beyond a reasonable doubt and acquitted him. The court took more than four hours to deliver the judgment.

Later on the same day, the court also found former Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando guilty over his failure to act on intelligence warnings ahead of the 2019 terror attacks, and sentenced him to death.

The coordinated bombings, which took place on April 21, 2019, killed over 260 people and injured more than 500 others, according to the judgment.

–IANS

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Seoul, Aug 1 (IANS) North Korea on Saturday condemned the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) recently approved fuel network overhaul plan, casting it as an “unprecedented” effort to prepare for war and evidence that the alliance is becoming “a more aggressive military bloc.”

The condemnation came in a commentary carried by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), as NATO approved the Fuel Supply Chain Capability Programme Plan last month, which seeks to modernise and expand its Cold War-era military fuel pipeline and storage network across Europe.

The commentary indicated that Pyongyang is keeping close tabs on NATO’s military movements at a time when its forces have been deployed to support Russia in its war against Ukraine, while the transatlantic alliance continues to provide military assistance to Kyiv, reports Yonhap news agency.

“Originally, there were disagreements among the member states because of the huge cost, but they were finally settled. This shows that NATO is clinging to the provision of strategic reserves for war while regarding it as a vital matter,” the commentary said.

“What merits an attention is that foreign news are commenting that NATO worked out such an ambitious plan to cope with a potential war with Russia,” it added.

Pyongyang further alleged that the initiative reflected NATO’s intention to stockpile military supplies for future conflicts, reports Yonhap news agency.

“In a word, it is the evil intention of NATO to stockpile enough fuel and other war supplies and thus kindle the flames of war any time in any part of the world,” the report said. “Several decades have passed since NATO was founded as a military bloc, but it is unprecedented that it prepares for war so openly as now.”

Moreover, the North accused NATO of expanding its military presence into the Asia-Pacific region, arguing that it frequently stages “adventurous military demonstrations in the vicinity of the Korean Peninsula in collusion with the hostile countries towards the DPRK,” the KCNA said.

DPRK stands for the North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

The commentary pointed to the participation of Germany, Italy and other NATO members in the recently concluded biennial Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise in and around the Hawaiian Islands, describing it as proof that the alliance “always keeps the Asia-Pacific region as the theatre of war.”

“The grave nature of NATO as a war bloc is becoming more obvious,” the commentary said, warning that “to hasten war is to hasten NATO’s ruin.”

–IANS

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Islamabad, Aug 1(IANS) A leading minority rights organisation expressed grave concern over a disturbing pattern of forced conversions and child marriage targeting minority girls in Pakistan, revealing that over 83 per cent of the victims are minors.

According to the Voice of Pakistan Minority (VOPM), the persistent failure of state institutions—including the police, judiciary, and administrative authorities—to respond effectively has fostered an environment of near impunity for perpetrators. The organisation said that affected families are often left to navigate a system stacked against them, while victims are denied both protection and a meaningful voice.

Citing a recent report titled “Stolen Girls”, presented at the European Parliament by US-based advocacy group Jubilee Campaign, it said that at least 210 cases of abduction, forced conversion, and child marriage involving Christian girls in Pakistan were documented between 2019 and 2025.

Emphasising that these are not isolated incidents but form a part of a broader pattern, the VOPM said, the findings reveal “deep institutional failures and a cycle of abuse” that continues largely unchecked.

“The numbers alone are alarming. More than 83 per cent of the victims are minors. The average age is just 12.8 years. These are children who should be in school, playing with friends, and dreaming about their future. Instead, they are forced into marriages with men nearly three times their age. The report shows that the average perpetrator is around 35 years old, with age gaps often exceeding 20 or even 30 years,” the rights body noted.

Referring to the case of 13-year-old Pakistani Christian girl Maria Shahbaz from Lahore, it said her abduction was reported, and yet the Pakistan legal system has failed her. Despite clear irregularities in the marriage documents, including missing identity details and false claims about her age, the court granted custody to the man accused of abducting her. It noted that her parents were left helpless, forced to watch the system legitimise what they believed was a criminal act.

The VOPM highlighted that Pakistan’s Punjab province has emerged as the epicentre of child marriage and forced conversions, accounting for nearly 89 per cent of reported cases. With cities like Lahore and Faisalabad topping the list, the data reveals that these abuses are not confined to remote regions but are taking place openly in some of Pakistan’s largest urban centres.

“Each case documented in ‘Stolen Girls’ represents a life interrupted, a childhood stolen, and a family left searching for answers. These are not just numbers in a report presented in distant halls of power. They are urgent calls for justice,” the rights body stressed.

–IANS

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Tokyo, Aug 1 (IANS) An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.8 struck off Aomori Prefecture in northern Japan on Saturday, the country’s weather agency said.

The temblor occurred at 11:48 a.m. local time off Aomori’s Pacific coast at a depth of 80 km, measuring 4 on Japan’s seismic scale of 7, said the Japan Meteorological Agency.

The quake’s epicentre was located at a latitude of 41.3 degrees north and a longitude of 142.0 degrees east, reports Xinhua news agency.

No tsunami advisory was issued.

This comes close on the heels of another powerful earthquake that struck Kumamoto Prefecture at around 4:27 p.m. local time Tuesday, registering an intensity of 7, the highest on the Japanese seismic scale, in the hardest-hit areas, causing widespread damage across the prefecture.

Earlier on Friday, the prefectural government announced that the death toll from a powerful earthquake has risen to 35.

At a disaster response headquarters meeting held Friday morning, Kumamoto Prefecture Government officials announced that 35 people had died, including those whose deaths are still being investigated to determine whether they were caused by the strong tremor.

Meanwhile, travelling from Yatsushiro to Uki, another city severely affected by the disaster, Xinhua reporters observed buckled and cracked roads, malfunctioning traffic signals and long queues at gas stations. Many people waiting for fuel said they intended to spend the night in their vehicles.

In the Ogawa district in Uki City, a civic activity centre had been converted into an evacuation shelter after the earthquake, where nearly 500 evacuees, many of them elderly people and children, were staying.

Families sat on the floor surrounded by backpacks, clothing and bottled water. Some leaned against walls to rest, while others laid out sleeping mats in preparation for the night. More than a dozen portable toilets had been installed outside.

–IANS

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Los Angeles, Aug 1 (IANS) US Marine officials have confirmed that emergency personnel were responding to an F-35B fighter jet crash near Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Miramar in San Diego, California, according to local media reports.

The incident occurred at around 10 a.m. local time on Friday. The pilot ejected safely and has been recovered, authorities said.

“We can confirm a mishap involving a Marine Corps F-35B in the vicinity of MCAS Miramar,” a base spokesperson said in a statement. “The pilot ejected, was recovered, and is enroute to a medical facility.”

The jet was assigned to the 3rd Marine Air Wing, Marine Air Group 11, according to media reports.

The cause of the crash remains under investigation, reports Xinhua news agency.

The F-35B is the US Marine Corps’ short takeoff and vertical landing fighter jet.

MCAS Miramar is a major US military air base, where about 15,000 service members from all branches of the US military are based, CNN reported.

Earlier in June, a US military fighter jet crashed in Washington state and sparked a wildfire, while the pilot ejected before the crash and suffered minor injuries. The aircraft crashed near Rimrock Lake, prompting an emergency firefighting response in the forested area.

The F/A-18 Hornet aircraft, based at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in California, was conducting routine training when it went down, NBC News reported, citing authorities.

The fighter jet was assigned to Marine Aircraft Group 11, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, based out of Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in California.

Similarly, in May, a US Air Force training jet crashed in Fayette County, western Alabama, with both pilots ejecting safely.

Columbus Air Force Base in Mississippi confirmed there had been a “mishap” involving a T-38 Talon II aircraft connected to the base.

“Two pilots ejected safely from the aircraft,” according to a press release from the base.

The Fayette County Sheriff’s Office and Lamar County Sheriff’s Department said emergency crews were at the scene of the crash.

The cause is currently unknown, said military officials. An investigation will be opened by the Air Force Safety Investigation Board.

–IANS

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Buenos Aires, Aug 1 (IANS) South Korean President Lee Jae Myung has said that South Korea and Argentina will usher in a new era of cooperation, saying closer bilateral collaboration is strategically more important than ever.

Lee made the remarks at a meeting on Friday (local time) with members of the South Korean community in Argentina, the final stop on his three-nation South America tour aimed at strengthening cooperation on critical mineral supply chains and others.

“I am confident that a new era of cooperation between Argentina and South Korea will fully unfold,” the president said.

“Amid the changing international order, from the artificial intelligence revolution to shifts in global supply chains, strategic bilateral cooperation is more important than ever,” he said.

Lee stressed that cooperation between South Korea and Argentina is entering a stage of tangible results, with bilateral collaboration expanding to critical minerals, including lithium, as well as energy and infrastructure, reports Yonhap news agency.

The remarks came after Lee held a summit with Argentine President Javier Milei earlier Friday, during which the two leaders agreed to strengthen bilateral cooperation on critical minerals and South Korea’s imports of Argentine crude oil, beginning next year.

A memorandum of understanding (MOU) toward that end was signed on the sidelines of a bilateral summit between the leaders of both nations.

Under the MOU, the two countries will share information on their respective policies regarding critical minerals and related investment systems, while promoting bilateral corporate investment and pursuing joint projects across the entire lithium value chain, including exploration and mining, according to National Security Advisor Wi Sung-lac.

Seoul and Buenos Aires also agreed to cooperate to ensure stable exports of Argentine crude oil to South Korea, as South Korea plans to begin importing Argentine crude oil next year following a pilot shipment earlier this year, he said.

The move is expected to diversify South Korea’s crude oil import sources, which are currently concentrated in the Middle East, toward South America, helping mitigate the impact of geopolitical uncertainties while securing stable energy supplies, according to Wi.

–IANS

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United Nations, Aug 1 (IANS) UN humanitarians have said they are concerned that damage to southern Lebanon’s water systems and other infrastructure is affecting the more than 1 million displaced people returning home.

“A preliminary assessment by the South Lebanon Water Establishment found that damage to water systems in South and Nabatieh governorates has disrupted access to safe drinking water for more than 700,000 people,” the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Friday (local time).

It said that damage to reservoirs, pumping stations, boreholes and other facilities is increasing public health risks and affecting agriculture and livelihoods, reports Xinhua news agency.

OCHA said that more than 821,000 people have returned to their communities, but 360,000 remain displaced, including some 27,000 people living in collective shelters.

The humanitarians said that returning home does not mean people’s humanitarian needs have ended. Continued investment in humanitarian assistance and early recovery is essential to restoring basic services, supporting livelihoods, and helping communities recover safely and with dignity.

Earlier on Monday, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said that Israeli military operations in Lebanon have caused widespread civilian suffering and may amount to “war crimes.”

Speaking at a press conference in Beirut at the end of his four-day official visit, Turk said his office had documented “large-scale violations of international humanitarian law, some possibly amounting to war crimes.”

According to a statement released by the UN Information Centre, he said continued Israeli airstrikes, shelling and the use of explosive weapons in densely populated areas had caused heavy civilian casualties, widespread destruction and mass displacement.

Türk also announced that an impartial and independent assessment mission has begun gathering information and evidence on alleged violations committed by parties to the conflict since March 2.

Citing Lebanese authorities, Turk said more than 4,300 people have been killed and over 12,200 injured in Lebanon since March 2, including more than 135 healthcare workers as well as many journalists and media workers.

–IANS

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Paris, Aug 1 (IANS) Amid growing concerns over academic freedom and institutional autonomy in Bangladesh’s higher education sector, a leading international human rights organisation strongly condemned the decision of the Dhaka University (DU) syndicate to suspend three teachers and to remove four others from their academic and administrative responsibilities.

The remarks came after DU, on July 30, temporarily suspended three teachers and relieved four others of all academic and administrative responsibilities over separate allegations, including activities “contrary to the spirit of the July mass uprising”, anti-government propaganda and support for a banned organisation, local media reported.

Citing sources, Justice Makers Bangladesh in France (JMBF) said that these disciplinary measures were imposed because of the teachers’ actual or perceived political beliefs and dissenting views.

It noted that such actions would constitute not only a violation of the individual rights of the affected academics but also a direct attack on institutional autonomy, academic freedom, and democratic values within the university.

“In a democratic society, universities must never serve as instruments for enforcing political conformity. Rather, they should remain safe spaces for independent thought, scholarly research, critical inquiry, and the free exchange of ideas. Subjecting academics to disciplinary or administrative sanctions because of their political opinions, personal beliefs, or peaceful exercise of freedom of expression creates a climate of fear, undermines academic teaching and research, and damages the international reputation of higher education institutions,” JMBF stated.

Expressing grave concern over the actions against the teachers, Shahanur Islam, Founder President of JMBF, said, “Where there are credible allegations against any academic, those allegations should be investigated independently and resolved through due process of law. However, targeting university teachers because of their political beliefs or the peaceful exercise of their freedom of expression is fundamentally incompatible with human rights, academic freedom, and the core principles of a democratic society.”

“We therefore call upon the Government of Bangladesh to end political interference in universities and to ensure the fundamental rights, academic freedom, and the rule of law for all teachers, researchers, and students in accordance with the Constitution of Bangladesh, international human rights law, and Bangladesh’s international legal obligations,” he added.

JMBF further urged the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to education, the European Union, relevant international academic networks, and global human rights organisations to closely monitor this situation and take appropriate action consistent with international human rights standards.

The rights body emphasised that the “true strength of a university lies not in political conformity but in independent thought, critical scholarship, intellectual pluralism, and the free exchange of ideas”.

“Political retaliation, ideological discrimination, and the suppression of dissent have no place in higher education and can never sustain a university that aspires to international standards of academic excellence,” it added.

–IANS

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Barcelona, Aug 1 (IANS) Western Europe is warming faster than many other parts of the world, fueling more frequent heatwaves and creating conditions for increasingly severe wildfires, a Spanish climate expert said.

As Spain entered its fourth heatwave of the summer at the end of July, with temperatures forecast to reach up to 42 degrees Celsius in many areas, Ruben del Campo, spokesperson for Spain’s State Meteorological Agency (AEMET), said that the country had experienced exceptionally high temperatures in both June and July.

According to AEMET, June 2026 was Spain’s second-hottest and third-driest June since national records began in 1961.

The extreme heat has been accompanied by a spate of wildfires, forcing nearly 200,000 people to evacuate their homes in Spain and southern France so far this summer as forest fires continued to spread.

“Some studies show that Western Europe — including the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain and Portugal — is warming faster than many other parts of the world, and that we are also more prone to heatwaves,” del Campo said on Friday.

According to the AEMET spokesperson, countries around the Mediterranean “are among the most vulnerable to heatwaves under the new climatic conditions.” He noted that temperatures in parts of Spain had already reached 35 degrees Celsius by the end of May.

The World Meteorological Organization said in July that Europe as a whole has warmed by around two degrees Celsius since the historic heatwave of 1976. It attributes the sustained rise in summer temperatures largely to climate change, a conclusion del Campo shares.

“There is a clear link with climate change. A rise in average temperature always leads to an increase in episodes of extreme heat, and this is exactly what we are seeing,” he said.

High temperatures, low relative humidity and strong winds have created conditions conducive to wildfires across Europe this summer. Major blazes have ravaged parts of central Spain, including areas near Madrid, and southwestern France, particularly around Bordeaux, Xinhua news agency reported.

“The heat begins earlier, and the lack of rain means summer droughts also begin earlier. This means that forest vegetation, especially fine grasses and shrubs, dries out more intensely and quickly. When a fire breaks out, this dry organic matter burns violently and rapidly, making the fire difficult to control from the outset,” del Campo said.

He warned that the wildfire threat is likely to persist throughout August as temperatures are expected to remain high and weather conditions continue to favor large fires. “For meteorological reasons alone, fire management will have to adapt to these longer and hotter summers.”

By the end of July, wildfires had burned almost 180,000 hectares in Spain, about six times the 29,817 hectares recorded over the same period in 2025, according to Spain’s Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge.

–IANS

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