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Blacklisted Chinese firm CGN runs power stations in South Korea

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Blacklisted Chinese firm CGN runs power stations in South Korea

CGN headquarters. Photo: China Daily

China General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGN), a Chinese state-owned energy company, is blacklisted by the US for stealing nuclear secrets.  In South Korea, CGN runs five power plants, with a total generation capacity of 2.2 gigawatts (GW). The South Korean government allowing China access to South Korea’s power grid leaves South Korea and the US military in Korea vulnerable, creating a major national security risk for both South Korea and the US.

On July 24, 2026, CGN announced that it began commercial operation of a 557 MW LNG combined cycle power plant in the Daesan Industrial Complex in Daesan-eup (town), Seosan City, South Chungcheong Province. Petrochemical companies are in and near the Daesan Industrial Complex, and the power plant is about 45 miles west of the Camp Humphreys US Army base. 

The plant is expected to supply up to 3.9 terawatt-hours of electricity annually to the domestic power grid. This is the second unit of a power plant under CGN Daesan Electric Power Co, Ltd. The power plant also supplies electricity to the petrochemical companies, a critical industry.

CGN, through another subsidiary CGN Yulchon Electric Power, also operates the Yulchon Combined Cycle Power Plant situated in the Yulchon General Industrial Complex #1 in Sepung-ri, Gwangyang-eup, Gwangyang City, South Jeolla Province. With the capacity of 1,390 MW, the power plant is in the same industrial complex as Hyundai Steel Suncheon factory and Hyundai Steel pier.

Map: East Asia Research Center

CGN, which changed its name from China Guangdong Nuclear Power, has numerous subsidiaries. It has international subsidiaries. Among those, CGN Korea Holdings Co., Ltd, established on November 11, 1996, focuses on energy projects in South Korea. Its CEO is Ni Yanliang.

Under CGN Korea are CGN Daesan Power Co., Ltd., created on April 8, 2009, and CGN Yulchon Power Co., Ltd., established on July 28, 2009. The president of both CGN Daesan and CGN Yulchon is Song Ji-ho. CGN Korea, CGN Daesan and CGN Yulchon are 100% owned by CGN as of 2022, and as such, are not “private” companies as often described in the news media, but are part of China’s state-owned enterprise.

Based in Hong Kong, CGN Energy International Holdings, CGN’s subsidiary established in 2017, focuses on developing, investing, and managing non-nuclear energy projects outside of China. CGN Energy International, through its subsidiary in Korea, was involved in the project.

CGN was blacklisted by the US on August 15, 2019.  In 2016, the FBI charged Szuhsiung Ho (Allen Ho, a US citizen), China General Nuclear Power Corporation, and Energy Technology International with conspiracy to unlawfully produce and develop special nuclear material outside the US. 

According to the FBI, CGN had been stealing U.S. nuclear secrets for almost two decades. CGN used joint ventures, partnerships and other legitimate international commerce practices to infiltrate the US nuclear technology network and steal advanced nuclear reactor designs that could be dual use.  CGN, listed on the US Department of Commerce’s Entities List since 2019, is also on the US Department of War’s list of Entities Identified as Chinese Military Companies.

CGN, acting as an intelligence collection platform, engaged in decades of sophisticated economic espionage in the US to steal dual use technology using regular commercial practices.

CGN could engage in economic espionage in a similar way in the Republic of Korea (ROK) as well. Furthermore, with the access to the power grid and the energy technology network (including nuclear energy network) in the ROK, it could sabotage power production and distribution. Thus, CGN operating in Korea poses a grave threat to the national security of the ROK as well as the US.

This article was originally reported and published by the East Asia Research Center, which focuses on under-reported or unreported issues of concern on the Korean Peninsula, especially in South Korea.

Tara O, PhD, the author of the article and the founder of the East Asia Research Center, has worked at the Pentagon and at the Republic of Korea-US Combined Forces Command as a US Air Force officer focusing on East Asia issues. Her research areas include national security, the ROK-US alliance, human rights in North Korea, defectors, unification and political and economic systems.

Dr Tara O is a Fellow at the Institute for Corean-American Studies (ICAS). She is the author of The Collapse of North Korea: Challenges, Planning and Geopolitics of Unification. She serves on the board of directors of the International Council on Korean Studies and was the editor-in-chief of its International Journal of Korean Studies. An air force veteran, her research areas include the Korean contingency and unification, US alliance, human rights in North Korea, North Korean defectors, and South Korean politics.

Tunisians Demand Saied’s Departure as Public Services Fail

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Tunisians Demand Saied’s Departure as Public Services Fail


Hundreds of Tunisians demonstrated in the capital Thursday, demanding the departure of President Kais Saied as prolonged water and electricity cuts, medicine shortages, rising prices and restrictions on political freedoms intensified public anger against his government.

The newly established Nafas opposition movement organized the protest, seeking to unite political parties, independent figures and Tunisians who have not previously joined established opposition groups. Demonstrators marched through central Tunis and called for the release of imprisoned politicians, journalists and activists.

Public frustration has grown during a summer in which temperatures reached nearly 50°C (122°F) in some areas. Heavy demand strained the electricity network, while power failures disrupted water pumping, manufacturing and other services. Tunisia has also faced shortages of medicine and basic goods as its economic problems deepen.

“Today, the Tunisian people are living in humiliation,” former lawmaker Samir Ben Amor said. “There’s no water, no electricity, and no freedom.”

Saied, elected in 2019, dismissed the prime minister and suspended parliament in July 2021 before dissolving the legislature. He later expanded presidential authority through a new constitution, dissolved the Supreme Judicial Council and dismissed dozens of judges.

The president says the measures were legal and necessary to combat corruption and rescue the state from a political system that had failed to address Tunisia’s problems. Opposition groups and international rights organizations describe his actions as a dismantling of the democratic institutions established after the 2011 revolution.

Tunisia continues to struggle with weak economic growth, unemployment, debt and deteriorating public services. Saied rejected conditions attached to a proposed $1.9 billion International Monetary Fund program, saying they could increase hardship and threaten social stability.

Thursday’s demonstration followed larger protests on July 25, the fifth anniversary of Saied’s assumption of emergency powers. Rights groups say authorities have increasingly used prosecutions and security measures against political opponents, lawyers, journalists and civil society organizations.

Fighter jets help destroy Russian drone boat near European offshore gas platform

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Fighter jets help destroy Russian drone boat near European offshore gas platform

This week, Romania accused Russia of sending a drone boat loaded with explosives to a vital European natural gas platform in the Black Sea. A Romanian F-16 fighter jet used its cannons to disable the surface drone so that explosive ordnance experts could blow it up safely.

On August 20, the Romanian Coast Guard first spotted the maritime drone a few hundred meters away from the Neptun Deep project’s main drilling platform, where several hundred workers were busy with the platform’s ongoing installation, Defense Minister Radu Miruță said in a Facebook post. The offshore gas project would make Romania the largest gas producer in the European Union once it starts full production in 2027.

To protect the lives of the workers and the offshore gas infrastructure, the Romanian military scrambled two F-16 fighter jets to stop the drone with cannon fire, Miruță said. Army specialists later carried out a controlled detonation, as seen in a Facebook video shared by the defense minister.

The drone boat itself supposedly carried explosives, according to Miruță’s comments, as reported by Reuters. Romania’s president blamed Russia directly for the incident.

“I strongly condemn the intensification of these types of irresponsible incidents on the part of the Russian Federation,” wrote Nicușor Dan, president of Romania, in a post on the social media platform X. “We remain vigilant alongside NATO allies to defend ourselves and repel such challenges.”

This marks the second incident involving suspected Russian drones near the Neptun Deep offshore gas site this month. On August 11, the Romanian military destroyed two Russian-made flying drones found floating in the Black Sea near the Neptun Deep site.

In both cases, Romania confirmed with Ukrainian partners that the drones did not belong to the Ukrainian military.

The drone boat found near the Neptun Deep platform is an unknown type that is different from surface drones previously deployed by Russia, according to H.I. Sutton, an independent naval expert who runs the website Covert Shores.

Sutton highlighted features such as a “large hinged hangar in the forward hull” that may have allowed the drone boat to carry missiles or aerial drones. He also pointed to two flat antennas that may have enabled satellite communications with services such as Starlink, along with radar and other sensors.

The escalation spiral

The Neptun Deep project may be a tempting target for Russia because it represents a crucial energy site for the European Union. Once fully operational, the platform would double Romania’s gas production and help supply gas to other European countries such as Germany and Moldova, according to Reuters.

The broader Black Sea has become a hotly contested battleground since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Despite lacking many traditional naval ships, Ukraine has used flying drones, missiles, and drone boats to damage and destroy Russian warships both at sea and in port.

Ukrainian drone strikes have also choked off Russian energy and grain shipping in the Sea of Azov and Black Sea, while simultaneously targeting “shadow fleet” vessels flagged to other countries that carry sanctioned Russian oil and gas.

But Russia has struck back by targeting ships and the ports that support most of Ukraine’s grain exports. Such constraints could lead to a global food crisis if European countries don’t help Ukraine find alternative ways to export its large grain harvest, said Cristian Vlas, Eastern Europe assistant research manager at the nonprofit conflict monitor ACLED, in a post on August 19.

Both Russian and Ukrainian drones have also sometimes strayed into the airspace of European countries such as Romania. Some of the incidents have been attributed to electronic warfare jamming sending drones off course, but others have been described as deliberate Russian provocations.

On August 16, two Spanish F-18 fighter jets deployed in Romania for a NATO mission intercepted and destroyed a drone that a NATO spokesperson described as being of Russian origin, CBS News reported.

Meanwhile, US intelligence experts have described Russia as likely being responsible for an attempted drone attack on Ukrainian cargo aircraft parked at Leipzig airport in Germany. The German government has yet to formally accuse Russia of being responsible.

Oil importer China won’t aid Trump economic warfare against Iran

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Oil importer China won’t aid Trump economic warfare against Iran

The Trump administration is once again threatening to carry out “regime change” in Iran, this time using what President Donald Trump described as “economic warfare” against the nation rather than military might.

But as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent demands the world play along with efforts to isolate Iran, the second-largest economy, China, is refusing to join the US sanctions campaign.

The Trump administration has failed to use military means to force Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz after it began restricting travel in retaliation for US and Israeli attacks in late February.

On Thursday, Bessent told CNBC that the new approach is to impose the “toughest sanctions in history” on Iran, ramping up a strategy that has inflicted suffering on the Iranian people but failed to force its leaders out of power for nearly 50 years.

Bessent emphasized that it would only work with the help of “all of our allies” carrying out the “greatest coordinated economic isolation in the history of the world.”

He made very explicit the goal of ratcheting up pressure on the regime by inflicting pain on the nation’s 90 million people, by causing “substantial inflation, both food inflation and ordinary inflation in Iran.” He compared the effort to the use of sanctions to strangle the economies of Venezuela and Cuba, which have fueled humanitarian crises in both countries.

Bessent issued an ultimatum that every nation is “either with us or against us,” and warned those who refuse to help with the administration’s effort to “squash the economy” of Iran that the US would “put its full might and force toward enforcing against you.”

He promised that any country that provides a “lifeline” to Iran would itself be sent into “economic oblivion.”

Iran responded to the threats by vowing a fearsome retaliation. “With preparedness across land, sea, air, air defense, and cyberspace, Iran’s armed forces will respond to the enemy’s new threats with crushing, punishing, and devastating responses,” said the chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces, Maj. Gen. Ali Abdollahi.

Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf, acknowledged that the impact of further sanctions could indeed be devastating.

“We must make plans to deal with the unjust sanctions so that we can overcome them,” he said. “No matter how much military power we have, we won’t survive if people are hungry and we don’t have financial turnover, economic growth, and national production.”

As the US imposes its own blockade on Iran’s oil exports, Bessent called on China to “get with the program.” China buys about 80% of the oil exported from Iran, and Bessent emphasized that half of China’s energy comes from the Persian Gulf.

But Lin Jian, a spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said during a press conference on Friday that China would not cooperate with efforts to isolate Iran.

“China believes that military means, sanctions and pressure tactics are not the solution,” Lin told an Iranian government broadcaster. “On the contrary, they will only lead to escalation that serves no one’s interests. We call for efforts to solve disputes through dialogue and negotiation.”

Asked about the potential effects on China’s energy imports from Iran, he reiterated, “China opposes illicit unilateral sanctions that lack basis in international law and UN Security Council mandate.”

The question now is whether Trump will make good on his administration’s threats and retaliate against China. It’s likely easier said than done, as an economic war with the US’s third-largest trading partner could further exacerbate the economic turmoil Trump is seeking to ameliorate before the midterm elections in November.

Danny Citrinowicz, a senior researcher at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies, suggested that China would be unlikely to surrender easily in that fight.

“China has a strong interest in preserving Iran under the Islamic Republic and maintaining Tehran’s strategic relationship, and growing dependence, on Beijing,” he wrote on social media. “Any economic strategy that assumes China will eventually fall in line with Washington risks being built on a fundamentally flawed premise.”

Shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz is still far below prewar levels, with the daily number of ships passing through in the single digits, according to Reuters.

Crude oil prices are still 30% higher than at the start of the war, while US gas prices are still up by more than a dollar per gallon.

But Trump, seemingly unwilling to admit that his campaign there has been anything less than successful, is continuing to claim that the strait is wide open thanks to US military action.

As Gregory Brew, a senior analyst on Iran and oil policy at the Eurasia Group, explained, this has left the administration’s messaging on why exactly it is now pivoting to ruthless economic warfare appear like disjointed doublespeak.

“Bessent and others cannot say what this policy is meant to achieve – reopening the strait – because in the admin’s telling, the strait is already open,” Brew said. “As a result, this return to maximum pressure feels oddly devoid of purpose. The US is inflicting economic pain, felt mostly by Iran’s people, rather than its rulers, for no clear reason.”

-Common Dreams

‘Rocky IV’ Star Breaks Down Over Cancer Battle (Video)

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‘Rocky IV’ Star Breaks Down Over Cancer Battle (Video)


Dolph Lundgren spent decades playing one of Hollywood’s toughest men — but the “Rocky IV” star is now revealing the terrifying real-life fight that nearly took everything from him.

The 68-year-old action legend becomes visibly emotional in the new documentary “Dolph: Unbreakable,” which chronicles his years-long cancer battle and the moment doctors gave him a devastating prognosis.

At one point, Lundgren wasn’t even sure he would live long enough to see the documentary released.

“They came to me back in 2020 during COVID, and we started shooting footage,” Lundgren told Entertainment Weekly.

But everything changed after he received a kidney cancer diagnosis.

“I didn’t tell the documentary team about it for a while, but it wasn’t looking too good,” he said. “So, in 2021, I told them that maybe we should focus a little bit on that because I may not be around for the premiere of this thing.”

The frightening diagnosis completely transformed the movie.

Instead of simply looking back at Lundgren’s nearly 100-film career, the documentary began following the “Expendables” star through what became the biggest fight of his life.

Lundgren said his wife, Emma Krokdal, 30, even recorded footage while he was hospitalized because outside cameras were not allowed during the COVID era.

“What it symbolizes are the fights I’ve had in my whole life, framed by the big battle I had over four years with kidney cancer,” he explained.

The actor revealed in 2023 that he had quietly been battling cancer for years. Doctors eventually told him he may have just two or three years to live as the disease became more aggressive.

But Lundgren refused to give up.

In 2024, he delivered the news fans had been hoping for: He was cancer-free.

Now the towering actor who terrified audiences as Soviet boxer Ivan Drago in 1985’s “Rocky IV” admits surviving the ordeal has left him forever changed.

“It feels very satisfying and wonderful,” Lundgren said of being alive to watch “Unbreakable” finally reach audiences.

He admitted that even after surviving cancer, the emotional toll did not simply disappear.

Lundgren said he has undergone what he described as “survivorship therapy,” comparing the psychological aftermath to a soldier returning home from war.

“You faced your own mortality,” he said.

His therapists offered him an analogy that stuck with him.

Most people know death will eventually come, Lundgren explained, but rarely spend much time thinking about it. Cancer patients, however, have effectively seen the danger coming straight toward them.

“Once you’ve had cancer, you’ve seen the bus,” he recalled being told. “You saw the color of the bus, and you saw the number of it.”

The documentary also shows a surprisingly vulnerable side of the muscle-bound star.

Lundgren revealed that beneath his tough exterior, he has struggled with painful emotions since childhood.

“I had a problem with my dad, went through some abuse, and I found martial arts, which is the way to express myself and feel strong,” he said.

Acting later became another form of therapy.

For years, Lundgren said he imagined himself going out “like a Viking, in a blaze of glory.”

Cancer changed that mindset.

He now sees himself as an “older warrior” who can use his experiences to help other people — and believes showing vulnerability can require more strength than simply acting tough.

“Men aren’t supposed to be emotional; we are supposed to just soldier on, no matter what happens to us, but men are damaged, too,” Lundgren said.

Some of Hollywood’s other most famous action heroes appear in the documentary, including Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jean-Claude Van Damme and Lundgren’s longtime “Rocky” co-star Sylvester Stallone.

Lundgren revealed that Stallone became emotional after learning about his diagnosis.

The two men had long shared what Lundgren called a “tough-guy kind of camaraderie,” but the cancer scare changed their friendship.

Lundgren remembered being in a Beverly Hills store the day after revealing the diagnosis when Stallone suddenly called him.

The “Rocky” legend was crying.

“He’s in tears,” Lundgren recalled. “It was like, whoa. I was just in shock.”

The two have since grown much closer.

“I think those guys are softies too, like me,” Lundgren joked.

After surviving cancer, Lundgren says he is no longer interested in pushing himself the way he once did.

He is preparing to release an autobiography, “Fights Worth Fighting: Finding Strength in Struggle,” and hopes the next chapter of his life will be about helping younger people find strength and direction.

“I feel a little bit like that now: leaving another life behind, and I have a new life now,” Lundgren said.

And after coming terrifyingly close to losing it, he says he finally appreciates that life — and himself — more than ever.

“I’m kinder to myself than I was before,” Lundgren said. “I don’t push myself as much, and that makes me appreciate life more.”

“Dolph: Unbreakable” premieres Oct. 6 on VOD and digital platforms.

Lawsuit demands Logitech hand tariff refunds over to customers

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Lawsuit demands Logitech hand tariff refunds over to customers

Logitech is facing a proposed class action lawsuit for not giving customers tariff refunds.

In April 2025, Logitech raised the prices on 51 percent of its portfolio, with some prices increasing by as much as 25 percent.

The complaint seeks to “recover monies that Logitech extracted from American consumers as offset for import tariffs that the United States Supreme Court has since declared unlawful, tariffs for which Logitech now stands to be reimbursed by the federal government. This is all while Logitech retained every dollar of the corresponding price increases it charged its customers due to the illegal tariffs.”

A construction and residential housing builder in California, SJK Development, and California resident Ala Awadalla filed the complaint in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, San Jose Division on Tuesday. Per the complaint, both parties bought Logitech mice at higher prices.

“Had Logitech not inflated its prices in the name of the unlawful IEEPA [International Emergency Economic Powers Act] tariffs, Plaintiff[s] would have paid less for the same product. Plaintiff[s] has received no refund, credit, or other compensation from Logitech corresponding to the tariff component of the price Plaintiff[s] paid,” the complaint reads.

Logitech didn’t make a public announcement about the price hikes, which are still implemented. The complaint highlights multiple times that Logitech executives told investors that the price increases would or had offset the financial impact of the tariffs. This includes a call in May when Matteo Anversa, Logitech’s CFO, said, “The positive impact of the US price actions and favorable foreign exchange more than offset the impact of tariffs and higher promotions.” Anversa was discussing Logitech’s fiscal Q4 2026, which he noted was “the highest level of profitability in the history of the company outside of the COVID peak.”

In February, the Supreme Court ruled that President Donald Trump imposed the IEEPA tariffs illegally. The refund process is ongoing.

The complaint notes that “Logitech received a full refund of $61 million for the tariffs invalidated by the Supreme Court, including $15 million during the first quarter of fiscal year 2027 and $46 million subsequent to quarter end.” It adds:

… Logitech has been—and absent relief will continue to be— enriched twice over at its customers’ expense: once by the tariff-justified overcharges collected from Plaintiffs and the Class, and again by the government’s refund, with interest, of the very duties those overcharges were represented to cover.

The lawsuit is seeking a declaratory judgement that Logitech must give IEEPA tariff refund proceeds to customers.

Tariff lawsuits

Logitech joins a handful of other consumer tech companies, including Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony, that customers are suing over tariff refunds. Some customers feel entitled to being refunded as these companies were, although mass refunds like this could present financial and logistical challenges.

For its part, Nintendo has argued that customers “received exactly what they paid for” and that there is not “anything ‘unjust’ about Nintendo retaining money that it may receive from the government as tariff refunds.” It also filed a motion to compel arbitration, a move that Logitech may also pursue, considering that its end-user license agreement has arbitration provisions.

Logitech didn’t respond to Ars Technica’s request for comment.

Belgian physician enters race to lead WHO

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Belgian physician enters race to lead WHO


Belgian doctor Hans Kluge, head of the World Health Organization’s Europe region, is running for director-general of the agency.

In an email to WHO staff, which was seen by POLITICO, incumbent Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus confirmed that Kluge would step back from his role, effective Aug. 21, to campaign for the job.

Kluge is the third confirmed candidate in the race alongside Hanan Mohamed Al Kuwari from Qatar and Hanan Balkhy from Saudi Arabia.

Balkhy, WHO regional director for the Eastern Mediterranean, has also stepped back from her role during the campaign, as per the agency’s rules. Al Kuwari, who is a former public health minister, is serving as adviser to Qatar’s prime minister.

Nominations for the post opened in April, with a deadline of Sept. 24, 2026.

Corinne Capuano, director of programme management at WHO Europe, will head the European region on a temporary basis in Kluge’s absence.

Source: Politico

Israel preventing foreign support for Lebanese army, deputy PM says

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Israel preventing foreign support for Lebanese army, deputy PM says

Israel is preventing several countries from providing support to the Lebanese army as the latter deploys in parts of southern Lebanon in line with a US-backed framework agreement signed in June between Lebanon and Israel, Deputy Prime Minister Tarek Mitri said Friday, Anadolu reports.

“Several countries have expressed their readiness to help the Lebanese army as it enters the pilot areas in the south, but Israel is objecting to this,” Mitri said, according to the Lebanese National News Agency.

“Pilot areas” refer to parts of southern Lebanon where security arrangements are being made in line with the framework agreement, including the withdrawal of Israeli forces to make way for the deployment of Lebanese troops.

Mitri also decried what he described as “clear Israeli intransigence” regarding the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

According to Mitri, Beirut wants an international body to remain in southern Lebanon to monitor developments there.

“Israel isn’t prepared to show good faith regarding negotiations and the framework agreement,” he said.

UNIFIL’s mandate in southern Lebanon is due to expire at the end of this year, with its full withdrawal expected to be completed in 2027.

Discussions remain underway over the future of the peacekeeping force’s mission in the country.

UNIFIL has been present in southern Lebanon since 1978 in line with UN Security Council resolutions. Its mandate includes monitoring the security situation and ensuring stability in the area.

READ: UNIFIL hands over position in southern Lebanon to Lebanese army

Regarding Beirut’s efforts to strengthen the authority of state institutions, Mitri said the government’s decision to consolidate the role of the state “is not one from which it will back down.”

He also said Beirut does not want to enforce its decisions by force in a way that threatens national unity.

His remarks come as Lebanon and Israel seek to implement the June framework agreement, which calls for a phased Israeli withdrawal from Lebanese territory and the deployment of the Lebanese army into vacated areas.

It also calls for the disarmament of armed groups, in reference to Hezbollah.

Despite the agreement, Israel has continued staging relentless attacks in several parts of southern Lebanon, which Beirut says are hindering the army’s planned deployments.

Since March 2, wide-ranging Israeli attacks have killed 4,348 people and injured more than 12,000 others, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.

Israeli forces remain present in several parts of southern Lebanon, some of which they have occupied for decades.

Others were occupied during a previous round of fighting — in 2023 and 2024 — when Israeli forces advanced more than 10 kilometers into sovereign Lebanese territory.

READ: Israel pounds southern Lebanon with airstrikes, artillery despite truce deal

Ben-Gurion Airport Struggles To Recover From Worker Walkout

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Ben-Gurion Airport Struggles To Recover From Worker Walkout


Ben-Gurion International Airport remained severely disrupted Friday morning after an unannounced worker walkout halted incoming flights and check-in operations Thursday, causing cancellations, long delays and an estimated NIS 30 million ($10 million) in economic damage.

Departing flights were delayed by an average of 70 to 90 minutes Friday, making Ben-Gurion the world’s most disrupted airport for departures at that time, according to flight-tracking service Flightradar24. When arrivals were included, the airport ranked 10th worldwide for disruptions.

The stoppage began Thursday afternoon as workers left check-in counters during what was expected to be Israel’s busiest travel day in a year. Approximately 107,000 passengers and more than 600 arrivals and departures had been scheduled.

The Israel Airports Authority described the action as an illegal strike and considered seeking an order from the national Labor Court. The Histadrut labor federation denied authorizing a strike and said chronic staffing shortages and poor preparations for summer passenger traffic caused the disruption.

Airport workers’ union chief Pinchas Idan said he had warned Transportation Minister Miri Regev in June that staffing levels were inadequate. He criticized a decision to dismiss 250 temporary employees while existing teams were already struggling with passenger volumes.

Regev instructed airport management to seek court intervention, accusing workers of taking “tens of thousands of Israeli citizens hostage.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party later revoked Idan’s party membership, saying the stoppage had harmed the public and the economy.

Employees returned to work Thursday afternoon, but canceled and delayed flights left aircraft and crews out of position, prolonging the disruption.

“I’m glad to say, the airport is returning to full operations, and even beyond that,” Israel Airports Authority Chairman Yiftah Ron-Tal said Thursday. “We’re ramping up the number of departing flights and will be doubling them in the coming hours.”

The disruption struck as Ben-Gurion was already operating under pressure from heavy summer travel and the presence of US military aircraft connected to the war with Iran.

Motorola’s GrapheneOS phones will launch in 2027 priced higher than Pixels

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Motorola’s GrapheneOS phones will launch in 2027 priced higher than Pixels

Several months ago, Motorola and the makers of GrapheneOS announced a team-up that would expand support for the privacy-centric OS to beyond Google’s Pixel phones. The announcement, however, was bereft of details. Now, the creators of the OS have taken to Mastodon (naturally) to provide an update. Moto’s GrapheneOS phones are on track to launch in 2027, but they’ll cost a pretty penny.

The upcoming Moto devices won’t ship with GrapheneOS, but they will be fully supported by the project with help from Moto itself. So far, only Pixel phones have met GrapheneOS’s strict hardware requirements to ensure the highest level of security and privacy. The software, which is based on Android, includes features like enhanced memory protection, granular network permissions, customizable app sandboxing, and a duress code that can be used to wipe your phone. (That last one got an activist charged with a felony earlier this year after he used it to delete his data during a customs interrogation.)

According to the GrapheneOS team, the upcoming Moto phones will be premium flagship devices. The team expects pricing to be even higher than Pixel phones, which is saying something. The current Pixel lineup starts at $900 for the base model Pixel 11, a $100 increase from last year. The Pixel 11 Pro XL price has gone up to a whopping $1,300 this year.

So these mysterious Moto phones will presumably be well over a grand. Motorola didn’t bother releasing new versions of its non-folding Edge phones in 2026, and if that trend continues, the 2027 devices may be foldables. That would help explain the high prices, and the ongoing AI-driven component price increases can’t be helping either.

While Motorola makes plenty of budget devices in the Moto G line, those devices aren’t a viable option. GrapheneOS has supported Pixels because Google’s Tensor chips provide the necessary security features, but not all Qualcomm chips offer the same capabilities. Only Qualcomm’s most expensive 8-series processors are comparable from a security standpoint, and those only go in expensive flagship smartphones.

Motorola Razr Ultra

Most of Moto’s recent flagships have been foldables, so that may be the next stop for GrapheneOS.

Credit: Ryan Whitwam

Most of Moto’s recent flagships have been foldables, so that may be the next stop for GrapheneOS. Credit: Ryan Whitwam

It’s possible that cheaper Moto phones could eventually get GrapheneOS support, but the developers don’t see that happening any time soon. Qualcomm’s mid-range chips don’t get the same level of support unless OEMs pay more, so Motorola would have to commit to that on a wider range of products. As it stands, Motorola only offers update support for a couple of years on budget phones, which isn’t sufficient for GrapheneOS.

Motorola hasn’t confirmed a release timeline for these devices, but GrapheneOS should be available for them at launch. The installation process requires some technical expertise, but the project has a web-based USB installer for Pixel phones. It will probably offer similar resources when the Motorola devices arrive.

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