Back in 2018, the Switch received one of its worst and most unplayable ports in the console’s history, a remarkable distinction given how many rough games are on the platform. You might know it, as it’s a pretty popular first-person open-world survival simulator called Ark: Survival Evolved. Now four years after its initial release, Ark has a new Switch port using a newer version of Unreal and it might be one of the most impressive upgrades to a Switch game I’ve ever seen.
There have been some miracle ports on the Switch. Games like The Witcher 3 and Doom 2016not only look nice on the aging portable hybrid console, but also play well, too. That’s not easy to do, mind you. The Switch is old and not very powerful, so getting modern, big, fancy-looking 3D games running on it is challenging. I mean, even Nintendo-published games like the new Pokémon struggle on it. So it’s not surprising that for every miracle port there are a dozen bleh ports of big games. But then there are the truly abysmal ports, the ones that make you wonder why they even got made. And perhaps the worst of the worst is 2018’s Ark: Survival Evolved.
Digital Foundry / Studio Wildcard
Ark on Switch in 2018 wasn’t just bad, it was really, really terrible. Many websites and critics have called it one of, if not the, worst port released for Switch. It featured incredibly low resolution and a horrifically bad framerate, with tons of stuttering and hitching.
Even when it ran well, it looked like shit, with lots of blurry objects and fuzzy shapes floating around. Some of these, apparently, were meant to be dinosaurs or trees. It was hard to tell. This Digital Foundry video from 2018 is a great look at the port and how poorly it played. Fast forward a few years later and now this month a brand new version of the popular survival game is out on Switch. And folks, it’s kind of impressive how much better things are.
Digital Foundry / Studio Wildcard
Eurogamer and Digital Foundry took a look at this new port and talked to the developers behind it. Apparently, the entire game has been rebuilt from the ground up in Unreal 4. In fact, according to the devs, nothing from the original game remains. Instead, this port is based on a newer Xbox build of the game. New port developer Grove Street Games (yes, the same people behind the hated, wonky GTA Trilogy remasters from last year…) is also using dynamic resolution scaling to help things look sharper and run better on the Switch.
G/O Media may get a commission
The new port of Ark features nicer-looking shadows and less pop-in thanks to new tools available in UE4. Even better, the infamously long loading times have been cut down to only around 30 seconds. That’s still a lot, but consider that in the original port it could take up to nearly three minutes. So yeah, big improvements all around.
To be clear: This is still a rough way to play Ark: Survival Evolved compared to more capable platforms. Of course, playing the game on newer more powerful consoles or a beefy PC will provide a much better experience. But for folks who prefer portable gaming or who only have a Switch, it’s nice to see a publisher go back and spend the money and time to completely fix and replace a bad port with something much better. This isn’t something you see very often and even if the new port still has its own issues, the new version is a night-and-day improvement that should be applauded.
Ark: Survival Evolved – Ultimate Survivor Editionis out now on Switch and is available to previous owners of the old port for free. Maybe The Outer Worlds can get a better port next?
Russia said Saturday that it would suspend participation in the export of agricultural products from Ukrainian ports, in response to an attack on the occupied Black Sea port of Sevastopol that it blamed on the government of Ukraine.
The Defense Ministry said in a statement published on Telegram that ships of the Black Sea Fleet and civilian ships involved in ensuring the security of the so-called grain corridor had come under attack. As a result, “the Russian side suspends participation in the implementation of agreements on the export of agricultural products from Ukrainian ports,” the statement said.
The move threatens to derail the United Nations brokered deal that unblocks Ukraine’s vital grain exports through the Black Sea, which is critical to addressing a global hunger crisis and comes a day after U.N. chief
António Guterres
urged Russia and Ukraine to renew the agreement, which is officially set to expire on Nov. 19.
Officials from Russia, Turkey, Ukraine and the U.N. signed the grain agreement in July, freeing millions of tons of food products that had been bottled up in the country since the Russian invasion began in February.
The agreement is one of the few diplomatic breakthroughs of the war and helped to bring the global price of wheat down to prewar levels, helping to ease a global hunger crisis that resulted in part from the conflict. Ukraine provided about 10% of the world’s wheat before Russia invaded.
If shipments of Ukrainian grain are halted, the suspension will likely drive up the global price of wheat, corn and other vital food products.
But Russia’s Foreign Ministry said that Ukraine’s armed forces used “the cover of a humanitarian corridor” to launch massive air and sea strikes and as a result Moscow “cannot guarantee the safety of civilian dry cargo ships participating in the Black Sea Initiative and suspends its implementation from today for an indefinite period.” It said appropriate instructions have been given to Russian representatives at the Joint Coordination Center in Istanbul, which controls the transportation of Ukrainian food.
A Turkish official said Turkey hasn’t been officially notified of Russia’s decision to suspend its participation in the deal. Turkish President Recep
Tayyip Erdogan
helped broker the deal.
Oleksandr Kubrakov,
Ukraine’s minister of infrastructure, said his country will continue supplying grains around the world. “The world should not be held hostage to Russia’s whims, hunger cannot be a weapon,” he said in a Tweet.
Russia’s decision to suspend it is also a major blow to Ukraine’s globally important agriculture industry, which returned to a nearly prewar level of grain exports earlier this month, largely due to the deal. Since the agreement was signed, Ukraine exported 9.2 million tons of food products through a safe corridor in the Black Sea, according to the United Nations.
Russian President
Vladimir Putin
has threatened to abandon the deal in recent months, arguing that not enough of Ukraine’s wheat was going to poorer nations and that not enough Russian food and fertilizers were being exported due to sanctions. Around one-quarter of the food shipped through the deal went to low-income countries, according to the U.N. Ukraine also has shipped wheat to crisis-stricken nations including Somalia, Afghanistan and Yemen under the agreement.
Stéphane Dujarric,
a spokesman for the U.N. secretary-general, on Saturday said, “We’ve seen the reports from the Russian Federation regarding the suspension of their participation in the Black Sea Grain Initiative following an attack on the Russian Black Sea Fleet. We are in touch with the Russian authorities on this matter.”
“It is vital that all parties refrain from any action that would imperil the Black Sea Grain Initiative which is a critical humanitarian effort that is clearly having a positive impact on access to food for millions of people around the world,” said Mr. Dujarric.
In Luch, a village near the Kherson front line, a resident plays with her dog in the basement where she has been living during the war.
Photo:
Virginie NGUYEN HOANG for the Wa
Volunteers distribute humanitarian aid in the village.
Photo:
Virginie NGUYEN HOANG for the Wa
When asked about how Russia’s decision would affect the operation of the grain corridor, a representative of the Joint Coordination Center referred to Mr. Dujarric’s statement.
Ukraine’s foreign minister said in a tweet, “We have warned of Russia’s plans to ruin the Black Sea Grain Initiative. Now Moscow uses a false pretext to block the grain corridor which ensures food security for millions of people. I call on all states to demand Russia to stop its hunger games and recommit to its obligations.”
A worker at a Ukrainian power plant repairs equipment damaged in a missile strike.
Photo:
sergei supinsky/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
The remains of a house in the southern village of Luch, which has suffered frequent shelling.
Photo:
Virginie NGUYEN HOANG for the Wa
Ukraine President
Volodymyr Zelensky
accused Russia earlier this month of deliberately slowing the passage of vessels through the corridor, creating a backlog of more than 170 vessels waiting to transit. The corridor’s capacity is limited by the number of inspectors from Russia, Turkey, Ukraine and the U.N. who must check each ship as it enters and exits the Black Sea.
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Lt. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said nine aerial drones and seven maritime drones were involved in Saturday’s attack. He said the air attacks were repelled, but a sea minesweeper, the Ivan Golubets, sustained minor damage, as did some defensive infrastructure in Yuzhnaya Bay, one of the harbor bays in Sevastopol.
“You could hear explosions coming in from the sea,” said Yevgeni Babalin, a dockworker at the Port of Sevastopol. “There are fears that the Admiral Makarov was hit by an underwater drone.They shot at it from the ship and from a helicopter.”
The Admiral Makarov, a frigate, replaced the Moskva as the Black Sea Fleet’s flagship after the latter was attacked earlier this year.
A broker in Odessa who arranges cargoes from Sevastopol to the Middle East said the situation at the port was tense with residents asked to stay inside by Russian authorities.
Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Russian-installed governor of Sevastopol, wrote on his Telegram messaging channel that the attack had caused minimal damage to civilian infrastructure but city services were put on alert. He appealed to residents of the city not to publicize videos or information of the attack that could aid Ukrainian forces “to understand how the defense of our city is built.”
Ukrainian officials haven’t claimed responsibility for previous blasts in Crimea, including a drone strike on the headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet in August, but rejoiced and vowed to reclaim the peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014.
Crimea has served as a rear base for Moscow’s military occupation of a swath of territory in southern Ukraine, where Kyiv’s forces are now seeking to dislodge Russian forces from part of the Kherson region.
Gen. Sergei Surovikin, the recently appointed commander of Russian troops in Ukraine, has acknowledged that the position in Kherson is challenging and that “difficult decisions” might be called for, without elaborating.
Russian-installed officials in Kherson began telling residents to leave the city earlier this month in what they said was preparation for a Ukrainian assault.
Kirill Stremousov,
deputy head of the Kherson region’s Russian-installed administration on Friday said the evacuation of civilians was complete.
Meanwhile, the Russian Defense Ministry spokesman accused the British Navy on Saturday of being responsible for sabotaging Nord Stream pipelines in late September. Western governments have found that explosions rocked Nord Stream and a parallel pair of pipelines, Nord Stream 2. Investigations are continuing. Some German officials have said they are working under the assumption that Russia was behind the blasts.
The U.K. Defense Ministry said in a tweet on Saturday: “To detract from their disastrous handling of the illegal invasion of Ukraine, the Russian Ministry of Defence is resorting to peddling false claims of an epic scale. This invented story, says more about arguments going on inside the Russian Government than it does about the west.”
—Alistair MacDonald and Costas Paris contributed to this article.
Write to Ann M. Simmons at ann.simmons@wsj.com, Jared Malsin at jared.malsin@wsj.com and Isabel Coles at isabel.coles@wsj.com
Green light for Cosco investment divides lawmakers
No management or strategic decisions for Cosco
China’s foreign minister: hope for ‘pragmatic cooperation’
Opposition against deal within coalition parties
BERLIN, Oct 26 (Reuters) – The German cabinet allowed China’s Cosco to buy a stake in a terminal in the country’s largest port on Wednesday in a decision pushed through by Chancellor Olaf Scholz that triggered unprecedented protest within the governing coalition.
With the support of Scholz’s Social Democrat-led ministries, the cabinet approved a 24.9% stake investment by Cosco in one of logistics firm HHLA’s (HHFGn.DE) three terminals in the Hamburg port.
The approved investment is less than the initially planned 35% stake that the Chinese shipping giant and HHLA had aimed for and does not give Cosco any say in management or strategic decisions.
But the painful experience of being too dependent on Russian gas has changed many politicians’ attitude towards strategic foreign investment. The foreign ministry was so upset over the approval that it drew up a note on the cabinet meeting documenting its rejection, Reuters was told by two government sources.
The investment “disproportionately expands China’s strategic influence on German and European transport infrastructure as well as Germany’s dependence on China”, the document, seen by Reuters, says. It points to “considerable risks that arise when elements of the European transport infrastructure are influenced and controlled by China – while China itself does not allow Germany to participate in Chinese ports”.
In the event of a crisis, the acquisition would open up the possibility for China to politically instrumentalise part of Germany’s as well as Europe’s critical infrastructure, it says. The economy ministry and the four ministries led by the liberal Free Democrats joined in drawing up the note, according to the sources.
Scholz, a former mayor of Hamburg, has once again asserted his will against his coalition partners, the Greens and the Free Democrats. After pushing through a nuclear power extension single-handedly last week, the Cosco move fuels discord at home and among European allies who are against the Chinese investment and already see Scholz as increasingly isolated.
Scholz is scheduled to travel to China next week.
HHLA WELCOMES DEAL
HHLA, which is majority-owned by the city of Hamburg and one of the main users of the port, welcomed the deal.
“We appreciate that a solution has been found in objective and constructive talks with the federal government,” said Angela Titzrath, chairwoman of HHLA’s executive board.
It was working on finding an agreement with Cosco on the new conditions in a timely manner, she said.
With the original 35% deal, the German logistics firm had wanted to tie its long-standing shipping customer to Hamburg port in the face of fierce international competition.
Cosco did not immediately reply to a request for comment. A German government source told Reuters that the Chinese company had agreed to the deal.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin, asked about the deal, said on Wednesday that China hoped “relevant parties would see pragmatic cooperation between China and Germany rationally (and) stop gratuitous speculation”, without giving further details.
Supporters of the HHLA deal say it will allow Hamburg to keep pace with rival ports that are also vying for Chinese trade and some of which are partly owned by Cosco.
Reporting by Andreas Rinke, Jan Schwartz, Eduardo Baptista, Paul Carrel; writing by Rachel More, Kirsti Knolle; editing by Maria Sheahan, Louise Heavens and Nick Macfie
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
iPhone 15 Pro models will feature an increased 8GB of RAM, a USB-C port, and multiple camera improvements, according to Taiwanese research firm TrendForce.
In a press release today, TrendForce indicates that the iPhone 15 lineup will again consist of four models and that only the two Pro models will get Apple’s latest processor, as was the case with the iPhone 14 lineup. Users can expect the Pro models to be equipped with the A17 Bionic chip, while the standard models would stick with the A16.
TrendForce predicts that the 15 Pro models will be equipped with an increased 8GB of RAM to complement the A17 chip, compared to 6GB for the iPhone 14 Pro models. The standard models will likely continue to have 6GB of RAM.
The switch from Lightning to USB-C has been widely rumored for iPhones as the European Union passed a law requiring such a change earlier this year.
In line with previous reports, the research firm expects the iPhone 15 Pro Max to feature a Telephoto lens with periscope functionality, allowing for 10x optical zoom or higher, compared to the current 3x limitation. The Pro models should have an upgraded Main lens with an “8P” design, which would be one extra optical element for better camera performance.
TrendForce says iPhone 15 models will remain equipped with a Qualcomm modem for 5G because Apple is not yet satisfied with the mmWave performance of its in-house modem. The research firm believes Apple will introduce its own 5G modem in 2024.
Apple will likely announce the iPhone 15 lineup in September 2023.
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The eternal mystery of why so many major gaming companies work so hard to not sell us their classic games remains as inexplicable as magnetism. But as the N64’s GoldenEye 007 finally reaches the official Nintendo Switch Online service next year, thanks to a successful decompiling, somewhat less official avenues will now be able to port its spiritual successor Perfect Dark to PC.
Decompiling a game’s code is a process which involves taking machine code and restoring it to human-readable code, using a combination of meticulous experimentation, months of painstaking human effort, and witchcraft. Previously we’ve seen Nintendo 64 games like Super Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time receive the same treatment, leading to PC versions with vastly improved graphics and resolutions. Now that a team has successfully completed the monumental task of doing the same for Perfect Dark, we can expect to see versions for PC popping up in a few months.
The legality of such actions is obviously questionable. The team behind Perfect Dark’s decompilation very reasonably insist that anyone who attempts to recompile the game only does so while owning a legal ROM of the original game. They add that, “When a matching decompilation is compiled with the same compiler that the original developers used, the output will be exactly the same as the retail game, byte for byte.” The point being, you’re simply backing up your ROM.
Of course, that’s not why anyone’s really doing it, which is where things get murkier. Perhaps offering the decompiled code is a violation of Nintendo or Rare’s intellectual property, and Nintendo certainly doesn’t take kindly to any efforts to distribute their decades-old games to a PC audience.
At the same time, these games remain nigh impossible to legitimately play without access to a time machine. (Sure, you’ve got a cart and an N64, so you could just plug it into…oh wait, how do I get these fat grey plugs into the tiny holes in the back of my TV?) However, it’s pretty important to note that’s not entirely the case with Rare’s Perfect Dark, where the 2010 remake is currently included in Xbox’s Game Pass.
Anyway, all this aside, the widely-adored yet almost impossible to play N64 version of Perfect Dark will soon be compiled for PC, with inevitable improvements in its framerates, resolution, and possibly even graphics. Heck, mouse and keyboard support for the classic shooter will be a revelation.
Companies: we want to give you our money for this stuff, even though we already did twenty years ago. We’re that gullible. Just let us do it.
By now, we’ve all heard about the European Union’s new mandate that aims to get virtually all mobile devices to use USB-C by fall 2024. Of course, Android phone-makers would be pretty much unaffected by the new law since even budget Android phones nowadays are either already using USB-C or switching to the port anyway…
However, the story over at Cupertino isn’t nearly as clear! As we already know, the iPhone 14 still charges via Lightning, so it’s the next two years that might prove to be decisive for Apple’s port situation. As the mostly reliable analyst and leakster Ming-Chi Kuo pointed out in May, he expects iPhone 15 to switch to USB-C:
My latest survey indicates that 2H23 new iPhone will abandon Lightning port and switch to USB-C port. USB-C could improve iPhone’s transfer and charging speed in hardware designs, but the final spec details still depend on iOS support.
However, that was four months ago! And while I don’t necessarily have a reason not to trust Kuo’s supply chain analysis, I happen to have a strange gut feeling that Apple will pull another courageous “headphone jack/SIM card tray” trick on all of us!
So, here are the top five reasons why (as of right now), I do not see the iPhone 15 adopting USB-C and why I expect iPhone 15 and/or iPhone 16 to move straight to being completely… portless.
Apple’s September event shows Apple isn’t ready to obey the EU: Five hints that iPhone 15 isn’t getting USB-C
AirPods Pro 2 hinting at a MagSafe future!
AirPods Pro 2 gains support for MagSafe and can now charge via the Apple Watch charger
You see, not too long ago, we saw leaked renders that showed the alleged AirPods 2 with a USB-C charging port. Of course, we now see this leak was far from accurate. What has Apple done instead? The company doubled down on MagSafe with AirPods Pro 2 as if to make a statement that “this is the future of Apple charging”!
The fact that Apple refuses to give the 2022 AirPods Pro a USB-C charging port is the biggest hint that Tim Cook & Co are planning for a future without USB-C on AirPods and iPhone – the only two Apple products that currently don’t support USB-C charging.
Think about it! If Apple was going to give iPhone 15 a USB-C port, why wouldn’t the company set the scene for “the big transition” by giving AirPods Pro 2 USB-C now? It looks like Apple will be releasing a new AirPods Pro every three years now (which is the time gap between the 1st and 2nd Gen AirPods Pro). This means that Cupertino’s next chance to switch the charging port on AirPods will be in 2025, which is a year after the EU’s USB-C mandate would’ve come into effect.
Apple removes the SIM card tray from the iPhone 14, so why not get rid of the charging port too?
No SIM card tray – no charging port?
The second hint from Apple’s recent event that screams “no USB-C on iPhone”, must be the fact that Cupertino was “courageous” enough once again! After dropping the headphone jack with iPhone 7, now Apple’s done the same with the SIM card tray on the iPhone 14 series (at least in the US).
Apple’s decision to do away with the SIM tray on iPhone 14 was met with mixed feelings from iPhone users in the US. Many have pointed out that travelling with your iPhone would now become more challenging. But did the potential backlash stop Cupertino from moving closer to a portless future? Not really! Apple wasn’t afraid to remove the SIM card tray from the iPhone 14, so why not get rid of the charging port too?
The US version is a travel unfriendly phone since you can’t swap SIM cards in a holiday destination since not all telecom providers around the world support e-sim.
Twitter user
Apple doesn’t care about sueper-fast charging – iPhone 14 didn’t get the rumored faster-charging speeds
No fast-charging – no USB-C?
If you recall, shortly before Apple’s “Far Out” event, there were some rumors about a slight charging speed bump for the new iPhone 14 series. The rumors were wrong. But more importantly, Tim Cook & Co continue to demonstrate that entering the fast charging race isn’t one of Apple’s priorities.
Fast charging and faster data transfer are one of the main benefits of USB-C, and by the looks of it, Apple doesn’t think they are key to the user experience on past and new iPhones. So, fans of proper fast-charging, like me, would have to wait until Cupertino is able to invent its own version of the tech. Who knows when! And who knows how!
Apple’s way or the highway – iPhone 14 Pro’s Dynamic Island is another reminder that Apple won’t play by the rules
Dynamic Island and not-so-dynamic charging.
This one’s a bit of a stretch, but wouldn’t you agree that a big part of Apple’s rascal behavior as a company is that it likes things to be done on its own terms and conditions? The iPhone 14 Pro’s Dynamic Island is just another reminder that Apple is stubborn and won’t adhere to any industry standards. It’s Apple’s way or the highway!
You see, if we accept that the iPhone’s moving towards a “full-screen” future, wouldn’t it be much easier and quicker for Apple to drop Face ID altogether; give iPhone 14 Pro an under-display fingerprint reader and a tiny punch-hole selfie camera in the middle – like a Galaxy S22, and call it a day (for now)?
But no! It appears that Apple has a clear vision of a future with Face ID on iPhone. Tim Cook & Co have a plan, and they follow it, and if that means the iPhone 14 Pro will have a huge pill-shaped cutout on its display instead of a tiny punch-hole, then it will. The Lightning – USB-C – Portless situation isn’t all too different. A clear vision of a future without… ports!
Apple (still) puts profits first and everything else second, and USB-C won’t be as profitable as MagSafe
USB-C = no profits.
The last but certainly not least important hint for “iPhone 15 without USB-C” is that… Apple is a business. In fact, a very successful one. One of the most successful (legal) businesses the world’s ever seen. OK, you get the point…See, Tim Cook & Co weren’t afraid to send EU & UK iPhone 14 prices through the roof in order to maintain and possibly increase their margins in the midst of the financial crisis. iPad and MacBook prices are also expected to shoot up this fall. Apple’s even increasing prices on old products like the iPhone SE!
So, knowing that Cupertino makes a good (or even a great) commission on all things/accessories Lightning and MagSafe, why would Californians give it all up for USB-C if they can keep making the same amount of money or even more if the iPhone was portless? It’s not what businesses do.
How will iPhone 15 charge, and how can Apple avoid the EU’s USB-C mandate: The EU’s USB-C law isn’t as scary as you might’ve thought!
The EU is giving Apple some wiggle room, which Cupertino will appreciate!
So, to make things clear, iPhones and AirPods sold in the EU will indeed be required to switch to using USB-C ports by the fall of 2024. It’s written in the law now. However! None of this means that switching to USB-C will be Apple’s only option for iPhone 15/iPhone 16.
“The new rules only cover charging via a wire. If a device is not charged via a wire, there will be no obligation to have a USB type C port.”
European Parliament sources
As shared by EU officials in an email response to Computerworld, going USB-C will be the mandate only for those devices that have ports in the first place. This means the most obvious solution for Apple, and what I think will end up happening with iPhone 15/iPhone 16, is to go fully portless!
For the record, the EU says that “as wireless technologies still need time to be developed, 24 months after the entry into force of the Directive, the EU Commission will ask European standardization bodies to develop a standard for wireless as well”.
In other words, the EU is planning to introduce wireless charging standards too – sooner or later. However, this wouldn’t interfere with Apple’s (supposed) plan for a portless iPhone with MagSafe charging, as all iPhones since 2017 support Qi wireless charging too, which is the current industry standard.
Alternative charging solutions for Apple’s iPhone 15 amid USB-C mandate
All that being said, a portless iPhone (technically) isn’t Apple’s only solution to the charging dilemma.
Apple could technically ship the iPhone 15 with a USB-C port only in Europe and keep the Lightning – MagSafe combo in the rest of the world
The other “solution,” at least as far as the iPhone 15 series is concerned, is that Apple can actually decide to do nothing! That’s because the EU’s mandate kicks in about a year after the iPhone 15’s release.
If Apple chooses to play the waiting game, it might be iPhone 16 that drops the port altogether (or gets USB-C, if my prediction is wrong). Either way, September 2023 is expected to be key for Apple and the iPhone’s charging situation, and I place my bets on… no ports!
What’s your guess? Is Apple going to follow the EU’s command, or are Tim Cook & Co going to pull another courageous move and give us a portless iPhone?
A United States Coast Guard cutter conducting patrols on an international mission in the Pacific Ocean was denied entry to a port in the Solomon Islands raising concerns about China’s growing influence in the area.
The cutter Oliver Henry was taking part in Operation Island Chief monitoring fishing activities in the Pacific, which ended Friday, when it sought to make a scheduled stop at Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands, to refuel and re-provision, the Coast Guard office in Honolulu said.
There was no response from the Solomon Islands’ government for diplomatic clearance for the vessel to stop there, however, so the Oliver Henry diverted to Papua New Guinea, the Coast Guard said.
Additionally, it was reported that a British vessel was also denied entry but the British Royal Navy has not commented directly on those reports.
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United States Coast Guard crew members work on a Cutter at the Coast Guard Sector Miami base on January 26, 2022 in Miami, Florida. ( (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images))
During Operation Island Chief, the U.S., Australia, Britain and New Zealand provided support through aerial and surface surveillance for Pacific island nations participating in the operation, including the Solomon Islands.
China has been assertively trying to expand its presence and influence in the Pacific, and Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare alarmed some neighbors, the U.S. and others after he signed a new security pact with China.
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The pact has raised fears of a Chinese naval base being established within 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) of Australia’s northeast coast. A Chinese military presence in the Solomon Islands would put it not only on the doorstep of Australia and New Zealand but also in close proximity to Guam, the U.S. territory that hosts major military bases.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission (Ju Peng/Xinhua via Getty Images)
“China is gaining ground in its efforts to gain dominance in the Pacific,” Former United States Department of Veterans Affairs Assistant Secretary James Hutton tweeted in response to the news.
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“China is now running the Solomon Islands,” Gordon G. Chang, author ofThe Coming Collapse of China, posted on Twitter.
Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with Solomon Islands’ Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare in Beijing, Oct. 9, 2019. (Xinhua/Yao Dawei)
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
Andrew Mark Miller is a writer at Fox News. Find him on Twitter @andymarkmiller and email tips to AndrewMark.Miller@Fox.com.
Final Fantasy 16 is one of the most anticipated games in Japan, but there’s a problem – fans can’t find a PS5 to play it on, and the Blu-ray model’s price has just increased by ¥10,498 (~$76). As reported yesterday, many Japanese gamers are simply giving up their pursuit of the platform, which has failed to find much of a footing in Sony’s domestic territory since launch.
In fact, some traditional console players are turning their attention to PC gaming, which is considered more versatile these days – especially with more and more Japanese developers targeting storefronts like Steam. And as spotted by Twitter user aitikimochi, Final Fantasy 16 started trending in the aftermath of PlayStation’s pricing announcements.
Many pondered whether they’ll ever be able to play the game, while others prayed for a PC port. It’s worth pointing out that building a comparable computer to a PS5 is still pretty expensive – even more so than PlayStation’s price hikes – although obviously it can be used for other things, and software is generally cheaper on Steam.
As of right now, PS5 is the only platform confirmed for Final Fantasy 16. However, we wouldn’t be surprised if it made its way to PC eventually, as Sony tends to negotiate console exclusivity with third-parties these days. Of course, this is not the kind of conversation Sony will want to be taking place in its home territory – hopefully it can turn things round domestically as the generation matures.
BEIRUT — The last of the unstable grain silos at Beirut’s port collapsed Tuesday morning, two years after a deadly blast heavily damaged the structures, which for weeks had been burning and slowly collapsing as a traumatized country looked on.
No injuries were reported as the area was evacuated in anticipation of the collapse, but the sight of the dramatic, large plume of dust emanating from the port harked back to Aug. 4, 2020, when smoke rising from a fire at the port preceded an explosion of tons of improperly stored ammonium nitrate. The blast killed more than 200, injured thousands and left thousands more displaced.
For residents, the silos have been a kind of living proof of the tragedies the Lebanese have endured over the decades, in which events that shock the country go unexplained and no justice is delivered.
On anniversary of deadly blast, Lebanon’s port is again ablaze
The silos that fell Tuesday were the last of the structurally unsound northern block, according to Emmanuel Durand, a French civil engineer who has volunteered to work alongside emergency workers to monitor the structure. Grain that had been fermenting and toasting in the sun for two years burst into flames last month, weakening the silos and starting the process of collapse — most recently on the second anniversary of the blast.
In April, Lebanon’s government said it had ordered the demolition of all the silos, fearing their eventual collapse. But activists, families of the victims and engineers fought the government decision, with engineers stressing that the southern block remains structurally sound. Families of victims and independent lawmakers have demanded that the southern portion be left as a landmark of what happened until an independent investigation has been carried out.
A judicial probe began in 2020 into responsibility for the alleged official negligence that allowed 2,750 tons of highly combustible ammonium nitrate to be stored for six years on the edge of a densely populated city. The probe has been stalled repeatedly, as the judges leading the investigations were mired in court complaints by officials accusing them of a lack of neutrality and arguing for immunity from investigation.
“When you don’t get justice, you’re still hurt, and you still don’t have closure,” said environmental activist Samer Khoury, 31. “To me, this is not called PTSD anymore,” he said, referring to post-traumatic stress disorder, but rather CTSD — constant traumatic stress disorder.
‘Do you think this photo will change my life?’
If the silos are removed and no longer there as a monument to be seen, Khoury continued, “somehow, you will stop thinking about [the blast] or even consider that it happened.”
An urgent draft law was submitted to Parliament in July by an independent lawmaker, aiming to classify the silos as a national site for heritage. But when the draft law came up for a vote, the legislative session devolved into name-calling and accusations of voter fraud. Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri adjourned the session.
Officials who are members of Berri’s party, the Amal movement, are among the many named in the judicial investigations of the explosion.
A view shows stacked shipping containers at the port of Felixstowe, Britain, October 13, 2021. Picture taken with a drone. REUTERS/Hannah McKay
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LONDON, Aug 21 (Reuters) – More than 1,900 workers at Britain’s biggest container port are due on Sunday to start eight days of strike action which their union and shipping companies warn could seriously affect trade and supply chains.
The staff at Felixstowe, on the east coast of England, are taking industrial action in a dispute over pay, becoming the latest workers to strike in Britain as unions demand higher wages for members facing a cost-of-living crisis.
“Strike action will cause huge disruption and will generate massive shockwaves throughout the UK’s supply chain, but this dispute is entirely of the company’s own making,” said Bobby Morton, the Unite union’s national officer for docks.
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“It [the company] has had every opportunity make our members a fair offer but has chosen not to do so.”
On Friday, Felixstowe’s operator Hutchison Ports said it believed its offer of a 7% pay rise and a lump sum of 500 pounds ($604) was fair. It said the port’s workers union, which represents about 500 staff in supervisory, engineering and clerical roles, had accepted the deal.
Unite, which represents mainly dock workers, says the proposal is significantly below the current inflation rate, and followed a below inflation increase last year.
“The port regrets the impact this action will have on UK supply chains,” a Hutchison Ports spokesperson said.
The port said it would have a contingency plan in place, and was working to minimise disruption during the walkouts which will last until Aug. 29.
Shipping group Maersk (MAERSKb.CO), one of the world’s biggest container shippers, has warned the action would have a significant impact, causing operational delays and forcing it to make changes to its vessel line-up.
Figures released on Aug. 17 showed Britain’s consumer price inflation hit 10.1% in July, the highest since February 1982, and some economists forecast it will hit 15% in the first three months of next year amid surging energy and food costs. read more
The squeeze on household incomes has already led to strikes by the likes of rail and bus workers demanding higher pay rises.
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Reporting by Michael Holden
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
