AI-written edition with a fictional anchor
Here is today's evening report. Wed, Sep 30, 18:17 HKT
- 18:03 HKT FBI tells ShinyHunters members to turn themselves in after Dutch police arrest alleged leader Kai Tanner on the FBI asking ShinyHunters to surrender after someone else made the arrest, and what a victim can actually check today.
- 18:02 HKT Taipei Answers Xi's Sovereignty Claim Before Washington Does Mei Chen has the full Taiwan file: the rejection, the congressional message, and the ships and aircraft Beijing sent in reply.
- 18:04 HKT Iran's Rial Hits A Record Low On The Day Trump Says The War Will End Soon Vincent Lai sets Trump's forecast of a quick end to the Iran war beside the rial's record low, and reads the second number first.
- 13:05 HKT Shein profit falls 66 percent in first report since Hong Kong IPO, shares 30 percent below issue price Rachel Lam does the arithmetic on Shein's first results as a Hong Kong listed company, and it is not kind to buyers at the offer price.
- 18:05 HKT Man City's Chief Executive Answers A Guilty Verdict On Every Charge With A "Conspiracy Theory Dev Chatterjee on Manchester City's chief executive answering a guilty verdict on every charge with three words of his own.
- 18:05 HKT A Dozen Years of New Chemotherapy Drugs Added an Average of 2.1 Months of Life Sora Whitlam weighs 2.1 months of added life from new chemotherapy drugs against what the longevity industry charges.
- 18:04 HKT Ching Cheung Road taxi driver, 66, loses consciousness at the wheel, four passengers stop the car Cheung Kwok-keung on the Ching Cheung Road taxi, where four passengers did what no system was there to do.
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Taiwan Rejects Xi's Sovereignty Claim After Trump Left It Unanswered
Taipei has put a formal answer on the record to a demand Washington heard in person and has not addressed, so the only reply Xi has received comes from the island itself.
Taiwan has answered Xi Jinping's claim of sovereignty over the island, and Washington has not. Taipei rejected the statements Xi made during his US visit, asserted that the Republic of China is a sovereign state, and said it and the People's Republic of China are not subordinate to each other. The formula is old. The timing is what makes it news. Xi's one concrete ask in Washington was that Trump say the US opposes Taiwan independence. Trump did not say it, and he did not refuse it either. The question left the summit unanswered, and Taipei has now declined to wait.
Kai Tanner's Cyber desk has the other headline of the day, the FBI telling ShinyHunters members to turn themselves in after Dutch police arrested an alleged leader. The arrest was Dutch work. The bureau's part, as reported, is the invitation, and nothing in the reporting says stolen data was recovered or any access was cut.
Back to Taiwan, where Beijing's reply came in hardware. On Tuesday Taiwan counted three PLA aircraft and six PLAN vessels around the island, with one aircraft entering the south-west air defence zone, and China's coast guard was reported on patrol east of Taiwan. The numbers are modest, and they are the signal Beijing sends whenever Taipei speaks for itself. As Mei Chen reports from the Geopolitical desk, Taipei also made a second point, this one aimed across the Pacific. An official said Taiwan enjoys bipartisan support in the US Congress and that helping Taiwan strengthen its defences serves US interests. That is a message to the legislature, reminding it that the executive branch has left Xi's demand hanging.
The logic of Taipei's move is simple. A government that hears a foreign capital claim sovereignty over it and says nothing has, in practice, accepted the claim. Taiwan has closed that door on its own account. Until Washington replies, the rejection from Taipei is the only formal answer Xi's demand has received, and it is the island, not the United States, that has put its position on the record.
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