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New Chinese nuclear attack submarine sank, U.S. officials says
Satellite imagery showed that China’s newest nuclear-powered attack submarine sank alongside a pier while under construction, a senior U.S. military official said Thursday.
The sinking of China’s first Zhou-class submarine represents a setback for Beijing as it continues to build out the world’s largest navy. Beijing has become increasingly assertive in pursuing its claim to virtually the entire South China Sea, which is crucial to international trade.
Meanwhile, China faces longtime territorial disputes involving others in the region including Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam. The United States has sought to strengthen ties to its allies in the region and regularly sails through those waters in operations it says maintains the freedom of navigation for vessels there, angering Beijing.
The submarine likely sank between May and June, when satellite images showed cranes that would be necessary to lift it off the bottom of the river, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to provide details about the submarine loss.
Planet Labs PBC via AP
China has been building up its naval fleet at a breakneck pace, and the U.S. considers China’s rise one of its main future security concerns.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Friday he was not familiar with the topic and did not provide any information when asked about it at a Beijing press conference.
The U.S. official said it was “not surprising” that China’s navy would conceal it. The submarine’s current status is unknown.
The identification of the sunken nuclear submarine was first reported by The Wall Street Journal. Thomas Shugart, a former U.S. Navy submariner and an analyst at the Center for a New American Security, first noticed the incident involving the submarine in July, though it wasn’t publicly known at the time that it involved the new Zhou-class vessel.
Satellite images from Planet Labs PBC analyzed by The Associated Press show what appears to be a submarine docked at the Shuangliu shipyard on the Yangtze River before the incident.
An image taken June 15 appears to show the submarine either fully or partially submerged just under the river’s surface, with rescue equipment and cranes surrounding it. Booms surround it to prevent any oil or other leaks from the vessel.
A satellite image taken Aug. 25 shows a submarine back at the same dock as the submerged vessel. It’s not clear if it was the same one.
It remains unclear if the affected submarine had been loaded with nuclear fuel or if its reactor was operating at the time of the incident. However, there has been no reported release of radiation in the area in the time since.
China as of last year operated six nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines, six nuclear-powered attack submarines and 48 diesel-powered attack submarines, according to a U.S. military report.
News of the submarine’s sinking comes as China this week conducted a rare launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile into international waters in the Pacific Ocean. Experts say it marked the first time Beijing had conducted such a test since 1980.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was in London this week to discuss progress made by the U.S., Britain and Australia toward their shared goal of deterring China’s increasingly assertive actions in the Indo-Pacific. The London summit is the third Defense Ministerial for the allies’ trilateral AUKUS partnership, and according to defense officials, it will see them look at the two key elements or pillars of their work together to increase security in the Indo-Pacific.
The first of those pillars is helping Australia acquire nuclear-powered submarines, and the second is collaborating on emerging military capabilities.
Earlier this year, the partnership announced that Japan would work with AUKUS on maritime autonomy and, according to the official, there are also conversations with Canada, South Korea, and New Zealand about potential projects on emerging capabilities.
China has accused AUKUS of provoking a nuclear arms race and disrupting peace and security in the Indo-Pacific region.
contributed to this report.
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Former intelligence chief convicted of “aggravated torture” of Colombian journalist sentenced to 12 years in prison
A Bogota judge has sentenced a former intelligence chief to 12 years in prison for crimes including “aggravated torture” of a journalist, the Colombian public prosecutor’s office said.
Enrique Ariza, former head of Colombia’s defunct DAS intelligence service, was convicted of “persecution, harassment” and other crimes against journalist Claudia Julieta Duque, the prosecutor’s office said Thursday.
Ariza was found guilty of “the crime of aggravated torture,” it said on social media.
With the latest conviction, “eight former officials of this agency have now been sentenced for the persecution to which my family and I were subjected,” Duque said on social media.
On Monday, the former DAS deputy director, Jose Narvaez, was also sentenced to 12 years in prison in the same case. Former intelligence director Giancarlo Auque, also linked to the case, is yet to be tried, Duque said.
The journalist, who had to be protected by bodyguards until she sought refuge in Spain, has accused the DAS of spying on her between 2001 and 2004, and threatening to murder her and rape her daughter when she was 10.
Fernando Vergara / AP
The origin of the harassment was Duque’s investigation of the murder of journalist Jaime Garzon in 1999, in which she denounced DAS involvement in crime.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, two gunmen killed Garzón, host of a daily morning show in Bogota, as he was driving his Jeep Cherokee to the studio. Garzón, who was 38 when he died, was a beloved figure in Colombia whose life story inspired a television mini-series, CJR reported.
In November, another former Colombian state security agent, Ronal Harbey Rivera Rodríguez, was also convicted of aggravated torture against Duque, the Committee to Protect Journalists reported.
In 2017, the Latin American and the Colombian Federations of Journalists granted Duque with a “special recognition for her bravery in the fight for justice,” according to the International Media Women’s Foundation.
“JUSTICE!!” Duque tweeted on Thursday after Ariza was sentenced to prison.
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Naomi Campbell banned from running Fashion for Relief charity as U.K. regulator cites “serious misconduct”
London — Former supermodel Naomi Campbell has been barred from running a charity after an inquiry found funds raised by an organization she founded was spent on spa treatment and room service charges. The inquiry into Fashion for Relief, released Thursday, identified “multiple instances of misconduct,” including use of charity money to pay for a five-star hotel stay for Campbell in the south of France.
The finding by the U.K. Charity Commission means Campbell, 54, has now been disqualified from running a charity in Britain for five years. Two other trustees also received bans.
The watchdog probe found that between April 2016 and July 2022, only 8.5% of Fashion for Relief’s overall expenditure went on grants to charities.
Hollie Adams/REUTERS
Campbell, who in 1987 became the first black model to feature on the cover of U.K. Vogue in 20 years, achieved worldwide fame in the 1990s and remains a highly influential figure in the industry.
In June, an exhibition dedicated to her opened at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum.
Campbell says she “put the control in the hands of a lawyer”
Speaking in Paris Thursday after receiving an honor from the French government, the British celebrity denied any responsibility for the mishandling of donations.
“I was not in control of my charity. I put the control in the hands of a lawyer,” she told reporters after she was made a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters. The model added that she was “investigating to find out what and how — as everything I do and every penny I ever raised goes towards charities.”
Campbell’s charity held a string of glitzy, star-studded events to raise funds for good causes in London and Cannes. These were said to include projects ranging from supporting child refugees, to helping victims of the Ebola crisis and the 2011 Japanese earthquake and tsunami.
One event in the French Riviera resort in 2017 was attended by over 1,000 guests, including stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Antonio Banderas, Faye Dunaway, Jane Fonda and Uma Thurman.
A three-night hotel stay for a similar event in 2018 cost about $10,400.
The Charity Commission said it saw no evidence the trustees had made sure that such costs were “reasonable.”
The regulator also looked at additional expenses totaling £6,600 (about $8,800) for Campbell’s hotel stay, including spa treatments, room service and the purchase of cigarettes.
It said the trustees had argued hotel costs were usually met by a donor but failed to provide any supporting evidence.
“The commission concluded that there had been serious misconduct and/or mismanagement in the administration of the charity by the trustees since it was established,” the report said.
Fashion for Relief was dissolved and removed from the register of charities earlier this year.
Set up in 2005, it described itself as “dedicated to improving the lives of those living in adversity by uniting the fashion industry as a force for good.”
