Avatar 2 Marks $2 Billion Worldwide Box Office Hat Trick for James Cameron (Image: Avatar 2)
Avatar 2 Marks $2 Billion Worldwide Box Office Hat Trick for James Cameron (Image: Avatar 2)
Avatar 2 has marked $2 billion at the worldwide box office and is a hat trick for James Cameron. Previously, his Titanic and Avatar accomplished the feat and now, The Way Of Water has been added to the list. Very soon, he will also cross over to the life of Avengers: Infinity War. Keep reading to know more!
Released on December 16, Avatar: The Way Of Water is running successfully for over a month. He arrived with high expectations given the glory of the first half. Of course, every movie has its own journey and if we leave behind the comparisons with its predecessor, the Avatar sequel has performed brilliantly and has become a huge blockbuster.
Now, according to Deadline’s report, Avatar 2 has surpassed $2 billion worldwide, with a gross of $2.024 million after the sixth Sunday. It’s now inches away from beating Avengers: Infinity War, which stands at $2.052 billion. Publish it, the magnum opus will surpass Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
Avatar 2 is the sixth film in history, and the first in times of pandemic, to cross the coveted $2 billion milestone, joining an exclusive club that includes Avatar, Avengers: Endgame, Titanic, and Star Wars: The Force Awakens. and Avengers: Infinity War… As you can see, James Cameron is responsible for three of the six highest-grossing movies of all time. He is also the only director with three movies that exceed $2 billion.
Apple Gets a Boost in India as Chinese Suppliers Receive Authorization
China parts makers receive the initial go-ahead from India for growth plans
Political tensions have hurt the expansion of Chinese companies in India
Apple Gets a Boost in India as Chinese Suppliers Receive Authorization
More than a dozen Chinese suppliers from Apple Inc. are receiving initial authorization from India to expand in the country, helping the tech giant’s efforts to diversify its assembly network beyond China.
AirPods and iPhone assembler Luxshare Precision Industry Co. and a unit of lens maker Sunny Optical Technology Group Co. are among the companies that got approval, said people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named because the permits are not public. The clearances from key Indian ministries are a step towards full approval for expansion in India, and companies are likely yet to find local Indian joint venture partners, the people said.
Apple and other U.S. electronics brands are trying to reduce their dependence on China after Covid-related trade restrictions and production disruptions laid bare the risks of too much concentration in one country. The approvals indicate that India is allowing more Chinese companies to develop its technology manufacturing sector, even as political tensions between Asian neighbors have intensified.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made it a national priority to grow India’s manufacturing sector by providing financial incentives and government support for companies’ expansion projects. Apple has played a central role in that effort, with partners like Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. producing more iPhones in the country for the latest generation than ever before.
About 14 suppliers are getting the green light from India after Apple named them as companies whose services it needs to grow its presence in India, the people said. While the vast majority of Apple’s products are still assembled in China, the company in recent years has started manufacturing more of them in India through Taiwanese partners.
Representatives for Luxshare, Sunny Optical, Apple, and India’s Ministry of Technology did not respond to emails seeking comment.
Cupertino, California-based Apple exercises tight control over its supply chain which includes hundreds of component manufacturers. Some Indian companies, such as Tata Group, already provide parts to Apple, and the country is pushing to add more local suppliers to the supply chain to boost and diversify its electronics industry. Joint ventures with Chinese component manufacturers are one way to achieve this.
India largely isolated Chinese companies from its tech economy after the countries’ troops clashed violently on its long-contested border in 2020, leading to at least 20 deaths on the Indian side. The incident triggered anti-China business sentiment in the country.
India has since banned apps from Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., Tencent Holdings Ltd., and ByteDance Ltd., and raided, investigated, and penalized several other Chinese tech companies, from phone makers to fintech service providers. It has tightened rules prohibiting companies from neighboring countries from entering without government consent, and Chinese companies have lost state incentives for technology makers.
Meanwhile, India has been steadily ramping up local smartphone assembly, allowing Taiwanese manufacturers Hon Hai, Wistron Corp., and Pegatron Corp. to set up plants. But the absence of crucial component manufacturers close to their operations has limited the growth of the domestic industry.
While India is now approving the expansion of several Chinese suppliers in the country, some are still being turned away, the people said. Apple submitted a list of about 17 suppliers to Indian authorities, and some of them were rejected, at least one because of direct ties to the Chinese government, one of the people said.
Han’s Laser Technology Industry Group Co. and Shenzhen YUTO Packaging Technology Co. are among those being authorized, the people said.
Former Afghan Lawmaker Mursal Nabizada Shot Dead in Kabul (Image: Wakil Kohsark/AFP)
Nabizada, a former member of parliament in the U.S.-backed government, was killed by assailants at her home, police said.
Former Afghan Lawmaker Mursal Nabizada Shot Dead in Kabul (Image: Wakil Kohsark/AFP)
A former Afghan lawmaker and one of her bodyguards were killed in their home in Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, police said.
Mursal Nabizada had been a member of parliament in the US-backed government that was deposed by the Taliban in August 2021. She was one of the few parliamentarians who remained in Kabul after the Taliban seized power.
“Nabizada, along with one of her bodyguards, was shot dead in her home,” Kabul police spokesman Khalid Zadran said Sunday.
“Security forces have launched a serious investigation into the incident,” he said.
The shooting happened around 3 am on Sunday (22:30 GMT on Saturday), according to local police Chief Molvi Hamidullah Khalid.
He said Nabizada’s brother and a second security guard were wounded and a third security guard fled the scene with money and jewelry.
Abdullah Abdullah, who was a senior official in Afghanistan’s previous Western-backed government, said he was saddened by Nabizada’s death and hoped the perpetrators would be punished. He described her as a “representative and servant of the people.”
Nabizada was chosen in 2019 to represent Kabul. He was a member of the parliamentary defense commission and worked in a private non-governmental group, the Institute for Human Resource Development and Research.
Former lawmaker Mariam Solaimankhil said on Twitter that Nabizada was a “courageous defender of Afghanistan.”
“A true pioneer: a strong and outspoken woman who stood up for what she believed in, even in the face of danger,” she wrote.
“Even though he was offered the opportunity to leave Afghanistan, he decided to stay and fight for his people,” Solaimankhil added.
European Parliament member Hannah Neumann tweeted: “I am sad and angry and I want the world to know!”
“She was killed in the dark, but the Taliban build their system of gender apartheid in broad daylight.”
China's Imports of ICs Fell in 2022 for the First Time Since 2004 (Image: SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg, Bloomberg)
China’s Imports of ICs Fell in 2022 for the First Time Since 2004 (Image: SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg, Bloomberg)
China’s imports of integrated circuits (ICs), another term for chips, fell 15.3 percent in volume in 2022 from a year earlier, a sharp reversal from strong growth in the previous two years amid supply chain disruptions as a result of the country’s zero Covid approach and U.S. export restrictions.
China imported 538.4 billion units of integrated circuits in 2022, a 15.3 percent drop from 2021, according to data released by the General Administration of Customs on Friday. In terms of value, China’s IC imports amounted to US$415.6 billion, a 3.9 percent drop compared to 2021, showing that China is paying higher unit prices for imports.
Chinese chip imports rose 16.9 percent in 2021 and rose 22.1 percent in 2020.
Do you have questions about the most important topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new curated content platform with explanations, FAQs, analytics, and infographics presented by our award-winning team.
Meanwhile, integrated circuits remain China’s biggest import item. China’s payment for imported integrated circuits was equivalent to its combined crude oil and iron ore imports in 2022, according to China’s customs data, demonstrating Beijing’s determination to boost domestic production to substitute certain imports.
China’s chip imports began to shrink in early 2022, with numbers for January and February marking the first year-on-year drop since early 2020. In November, the volume of imported chips fell 25.3 percent to 40.5 billion units.
The drop comes at a time when the United States is tightening controls on advanced chip exports to China. The Bureau of Industry and Security, an agency under the U.S. Department of Commerce, last October updated a series of export controls targeting China’s advanced semiconductor manufacturing sector, adding new licensing requirements for personnel and equipment that support advanced chip production in China.
Meanwhile, the volume of China’s chip exports last year also fell 12 percent year-on-year to $273.3 billion. The value of exports, however, rose slightly by 0.3 percent over the same period to US$153.9 billion, leaving the country with a US$261.7 billion trade deficit in chip trading.
China’s total exports rose 7 percent in 2022, while imports rose 1.1 percent, representing an annual trade surplus of $877.6 billion, according to China’s customs data.
China’s domestic IC output in November fell 15.2 percent from a year earlier, according to the latest data from the National Bureau of Statistics. While IC production in November fell to 26 billion units, marking the slowest year-on-year decline in the past five months.
The statistics agency is expected to release IC production figures for December next week.
This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, explore the SCMP app or visit SCMP’s Facebook and Twitter pages.
India Must Close Airspace to Myanmar Warplanes after Attacks (Image: Al Jazeera)
Fortify Rights said Myanmar’s air force “dropped bombs on both sides of the Myanmar-India border” in raids this week.
India Must Close Airspace to Myanmar Warplanes after Attacks (Image: Al Jazeera)
India should prevent Myanmar warplanes from entering Indian airspace during military regime operations to bomb targets in areas near India’s border, an international human rights group has said.
Fortify Rights claimed Myanmar’s air force had “dropped bombs on both sides of the Myanmar-India border” in deadly attacks on Tuesday and Wednesday against an ethnic Chin rebel group.
Five soldiers from the Chin National Front (CNF) were killed, including two women, in airstrikes that reportedly began Tuesday when bombs were dropped on the ethnic armed group’s Camp Victoria in Myanmar’s Chin state, which borders the Indian state of Mizoram, the rights group said.
Two bombs dropped by Myanmar’s air force also landed on the Indian side of the border, near Farkawn village in Mizoram’s Champhai district, the rights group added, though no injuries were reported on the Indian side.
“New Delhi should not tolerate the junta’s incursions into its airspace, and the Indian authorities should do everything in their power to ensure the safety of civilians and border areas,” Fortify Rights Executive Director Matthew Smith said in a statement Thursday.
“India must not allow the junta to continue to destabilize the region by using Indian airspace in its attacks and must support efforts to hold the junta accountable for its crimes,” he said.
Myanmar warplanes have also violated the airspace of Thailand and Bangladesh in recent months, according to the human rights organization.
Salai Htet Ni, the spokesman for the CNF, which claims to represent the mainly Christian Chin minority located in western Myanmar, said on Wednesday that seven bombs were dropped.
“Some of our houses were destroyed by their airstrike… A bomb landed on the Indian side,” he told AFP news agency.
Chin state-based media published footage of what was claimed to be a Myanmar warplane and the damage inflicted at Camp Victoria and the site where a bomb landed inside India.
This is the location where one of Myanmar junta aerial bombs landed during the airstrike on CNF Headquarters on January 10. A group of resistance forces visited the exact location which is around 7 miles away from Farkawn village, Mizoram State, India. pic.twitter.com/2VVkBt4iaS
According to the French news agency, Indian police reported that the bombs had fallen on a riverbed demarcating the international border between India and Myanmar.
“Our initial investigation has revealed that there is no damage to any [Indian] life or property,” Lalrinpuia Varte, Champhai district police superintendent, told AFP.
According to AFP, the number of CNF fighters has declined in recent years and the group signed a ceasefire with Myanmar’s military in 2015. However, the CNF has since signed an agreement with forces fighting the military regime that seized power in Myanmar in February 2021.
Tesla Nears Deal to Build Plant in Indonesia (Image: Arnd Wiegmann/Reuters)
CEO Elon Musk tells followers on Twitter to be “cautious” with articles using anonymous sources after the report.
Tesla Nears Deal to Build Plant in Indonesia (Image: Arnd Wiegmann/Reuters)
Tesla is nearing a preliminary deal to build production facilities in Indonesia with a capacity of one million units, Bloomberg News reported, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter.
On Wednesday, CEO Elon Musk commented in a tweet referencing the report, saying, “Please be careful when writing articles that cite ‘anonymous sources,’ as they are often false.”
Bloomberg said in its report Wednesday that Indonesia’s investment minister confirmed talks with the world’s most valuable automaker.
The electric vehicle maker and Indonesia’s investment ministry did not immediately respond to Reuters news agency requests for comment.
Musk said last month that Tesla was close to choosing the location of its new “Gigafactory” following media reports that the automaker could announce a new factory in the northern Mexican state of Nuevo Leon as early as December.
In November, Musk said South Korea was among his top candidate locations for a factory he plans to build in Asia to make electric vehicles, according to South Korea’s presidential office.
Tesla makes its electric cars in Shanghai in China, Berlin in Germany, and Austin and Fremont in the United States.
The latest report said Indonesia’s talks include plans for production facilities and to facilitate the company’s supply chain.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo urged the electric vehicle maker to manufacture its cars, as well as batteries, domestically, in comments made to Bloomberg News in August.
War Game Shows Taiwan Halting China's Invasion But At 'Huge' Cost (Image: Anonymous/AP)
US military support is critical for Taiwan to defend itself from a Chinese invasion, but victory may be “pyrrhic,” a think tank says.
War Game Shows Taiwan Halting China’s Invasion But At ‘Huge’ Cost (Image: Anonymous/AP)
Taiwan is likely to defeat a Chinese invasion if the United States comes to the island’s defense, a prominent think tank says, but warns such a victory would come at an “enormous” cost, including the loss of tens of thousands of lives and damage to Washington’s global standing.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said in a report (PDF) released Monday that the high costs argue strongly to avoid war with China and urged the United States and Taiwan to immediately strengthen military deterrence.
“War with China would produce destruction on a scale not seen by the United States since 1945,” said Mark Cancian, senior adviser to Washington, D.C.-based CSIS.
“Deterrence is possible and affordable, but it will require planning, some resources, and political will,” said Cancian, the report’s author.
CSIS said it based its assessments on war games of a Chinese amphibious invasion of Taiwan in 2026. Military experts executed the scenarios of the war game 24 times.
They found that the invasion always began with a Chinese bombing raid that destroyed Taiwan’s navy and air force in the early hours of hostilities. The Chinese navy surrounded the island as tens of thousands of soldiers crossed the Taiwan Strait in a mix of military amphibious vessels and airborne troops landing behind beachheads.
In most scenarios, Taiwan was able to defeat China, CSIS said. Central to Taiwan’s victory was the willingness of its people to fight.
“If Taiwan surrenders before U.S. forces can be carried out, the rest is useless,” according to the report.
Three other factors were also necessary for Taiwan to repel a Chinese invasion, he said.
The United States should come to Taiwan’s aid within days of the start of hostilities and with the full range of its capabilities, CSIS said.
“Delays and half-measures make defense difficult, increase U.S. casualties, and increase the risk that the Chinese will create irreducible accommodation in Taiwan,” the report said.
The United States should also use its bases in Japan, according to the think tank.
“Without the use of American bases in Japan, American fighter jets cannot effectively participate in the war,” he said.
And finally, the United States must possess enough air-launched and long-range anti-ship missiles to be able to attack the Chinese fleet quickly and en masse, he added.
‘Sobering in all iterations’
The cost of such a conflict, however, was “high and sobering in all iterations,” the report warned, predicting “tremendous” losses, not only for Taiwan and the United States but also for Japan and China.
“In four weeks of fighting, the United States typically lost hundreds of aircraft, two aircraft carriers and up to two dozen other ships,” Cancian said. “The bases on Guam were devastated. The Taiwanese economy suffered major damage. Japan was often dragged into war.”
“China also suffered terrible losses, often including more than 100 warships and tens of thousands of dead, wounded, or captured soldiers,” he said. “Such a failure could jeopardize the Chinese Communist Party’s grip on power.”
The losses wouldn’t just come on the battlefield, CSIS warned.
“The United States could win a Pyrrhic victory, suffering more in the long run than the ‘defeated’ Chinese” because of the damage to Washington’s global standing, according to the report.
“Other countries, for example, Russia, North Korea, or Iran, could take advantage of America’s distraction to pursue their agendas,” he said. “After the war, a weakened U.S. military might not be able to maintain the balance of power in Europe or the Middle East.”
To avoid war altogether, the United States and its allies must strengthen military deterrence, he added.
Washington should strengthen its military bases and work with allies, particularly Japan, for additional base options. It should also buy more long-range missiles, particularly anti-ship missiles because some inventories are critically low, CSIS said.
Taiwan, meanwhile, could adopt the “porcupine strategy,” in which a smaller army adopts forms of fighting that inflict much pain on a larger adversary. Such an approach would involve Taiwan deploying more mobile anti-ship missiles, the think tank said.
Taipei’s government should also focus on strengthening Taiwan’s ground forces rather than buying expensive ships and aircraft that are vulnerable to attack, according to the report.
“Because some Chinese forces will always land on the island, Taiwanese ground forces must be able to contain any beachhead and then counterattack forcefully as Chinese logistics weakens,” the report said.
Meta Oversight Board Approves Posts Saying "Death to" Iran's Leader
The slogan is commonly used to criticize the political regime.
Meta has dealt with hate speech and violence for years.
Meta Oversight Board Approves Posts Saying “Death to” Iran’s Leader
The Oversight Board of Meta Platforms Inc. reversed the decision to remove a Facebook post that used the slogan “death to Khamenei” to criticize Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as not violating a rule prohibiting violent threats.
The board, which is funded by Meta but operates independently, said that in the context of the “broader social, political and linguistic situation” in Iran, “death to” should be understood as “down with,” according to a letter to the decision.
The slogan “marg bar Khamenei” is commonly used as a criticism of the political regime rather than a threat to the ayatollah’s security, the junta determined.
The board said Meta should do more to respect freedom of expression and allow the use of rhetorical threats. They said this case shows how failure to do so silenced political discourse aimed at protecting women’s rights.
Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Iranians have been taking to the streets in a series of historic protests after the Iranian national government’s moral police arrested 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, claiming she was dressed inappropriately. Amini died three days later after collapsing and falling into a coma.
To suppress dissent, the Iranian government blocked access to online services, including Instagram and WhatsApp. Facebook, Twitter, and Telegram have been banned in Iran since 2009. Some Iranians use tools like virtual private networks, or VPNs, to circumvent restrictions
The board said social media platforms provide a way for Iranians to express themselves freely in a country where traditional media is tightly controlled by the state.
Meta has spent years dealing with content moderation challenges, including how to handle political rhetoric, hate speech, and violent threats on its platforms.
The company faced criticism for how its platforms were used to spread false narratives in the months leading up to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The board said the “death to” statements used during events such as the Capitol riots were different from Khamenei’s slogan because politicians were clearly at risk and “death to” is not a phrase generally used in English-language political rhetoric.
UN Security Council Underlines Al Aqsa Status Quo and Takes No Action (Image: Mostafa Alkharouf/Anadolu Agency)
Palestinian envoy: “What red line does Israel need to cross for the Security Council to finally say, enough is enough?”
UN Security Council Underlines Al Aqsa Status Quo and Takes No Action (Image: Mostafa Alkharouf/Anadolu Agency)
Members of the United Nations Security Council expressed concern and stressed the need to maintain the status quo at the Al Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem, but did not commit to any action days after Israel’s new far-right security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, made a controversial visit to the site, which Palestinian leaders called “an unprecedented provocation.”
The decades-old status quo at the Al Aqsa Mosque complex only allows for Muslim worship at the site, which is Islam’s third holiest after Mecca and Medina.
But the site is also revered by Jews, who call it the Temple Mount. Israel’s far-right groups have long tried to change the status quo and allow Jewish prayer at the site. The far-right has also called for a Jewish temple to be built in place of the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Palestinian UN envoy Riyad Mansour pushed for the Security Council to take action Thursday against Israel over Ben-Gvir’s provocative actions. Israel’s new security minister is well known for racist incitement against Arabs, opposition to Palestinian statehood, and settler raids on the Al Aqsa Mosque compound and the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in occupied East Jerusalem.
Al Jazeera’s diplomatic editor, James Bays, reporting from UN headquarters in New York, said Security Council members had expressed concern about the situation at the Al Aqsa compound and the dangers of escalation “but their words were measured and limited, with little direct criticism of Israel.”
The Palestinian ambassador, Bays said, expressed dismay that the council was not taking any action and warned the council that the situation could turn into an uprising.
“The 15 members of the Security Council reaffirmed, as they always do, their commitment to a two-State solution. However, in recent days, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that his new government supports the continuation of settlements on Palestinian land, further undermining that internationally desired outcome,” Bays said.
A senior UN political affairs official, Khaled Khiari, told the council meeting that it was the first visit to the site by an Israeli cabinet minister since 2017.
“While the visit was not accompanied or followed by violence, it is considered particularly inflammatory given Mr. Ben-Gvir’s past advocacy for changes to the status quo,” he said.
Ben-Gvir once called for an end to the ban on Jewish prayer at the site but has not committed to the issue since aligning himself with Netanyahu. Other members of Ben-Gvir’s Jewish Power party still advocate such a move.
Israel’s ambassador to the UN slammed the Security Council meeting as “pathetic” and “absurd.”
Before the session, Israeli representative Gilad Erdan. He told reporters there was “absolutely no reason” for the meeting to take place.
“Holding a Security Council meeting on an event is not truly absurd,” he said.
Erdan said Ben-Gvir’s visit was “in line with the status quo and whoever says otherwise is only inflaming the situation.”
“To claim that this brief and completely legitimate visit should lead to an emergency session of the Security Council is pathetic,” he said.
Egypt, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates, which have peace treaties with Israel, condemned what they called Ben-Gvir’s Al-Aqsa “assault.”
Amman summoned the Israeli ambassador and said the visit had violated international law and “the historic and legal status quo in Jerusalem.”
Saudi Arabia, with which Netanyahu wants to forge a peace deal, also criticized Ben-Gvir. Turkey, which recently ended a long-running diplomatic spat with Israel, also condemned the visit as “provocative.”
The United States, which is committed to a two-state solution to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, said it was “concerned about any unilateral act that exacerbates tensions or undermines the viability of a two-state solution,” U.S. Deputy U.N. Ambassador Robert Wood told the council on Thursday.
“We note that Prime Minister Netanyahu’s governing platform calls for the preservation of the status quo over holy sites. We expect the government of Israel to live up to that commitment,” Wood said.
The UN Security Council has adopted several resolutions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict over the years and supports the two-state solution for peace in the Middle East.
Online dating sites and apps have become one of the main ways to meet people for hookups, serious relationships, and even friendships. But online daters can be confused by all the selection out there, and not just by the number of potential partners out there.
With so many dating websites and dating apps to choose from, how can you know which one is best for you to find your perfect match? It doesn’t matter if you are looking for short flings or long-term relationships, finding love, or just meeting new people, this guide is here to help you choose the right dating site for you.
Our experts tried and tested what it’s like to use the best dating sites and apps on the market. Ratings and reviews are based on ease of use, features, pricing, and dating pool quality.
Here are the Top 10 picks for the best dating sites and the details you need to know to decide which option is best for you. All that is left to do is register, create your profile and find your perfect match.
