Jack Ma, the Chinese billionaire co-founder of e-commerce giant Alibaba, said he plans to step down from his role as executive chairman on Monday, reports the New York Times.
Why it matters: Ma built one of the world’s most influential tech companies in Alibaba, and he has been a key figure in the meteoric rise of China’s economy.
Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated Ma is CEO. His role is executive chairman and co-founder.
Former Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos has been sentenced to 14 days in jail and one year of supervised release after being found guilty of lying to the FBI, reports NBC.
The big picture: Special Counsel Robert Mueller originally recommended a sentence between 30 days to six months for Papadopoulous but the judge presiding over his case said "he does feel remorse" for his actions.
Last week, Reuters reported that Iran transferred two types of weapons — a rail-launched artillery rocket and solid-propellant short-range ballistic missiles called the Fateh-110 and the Zulfiqar — to Shiite militias in neighboring Iraq. The same report cited an unnamed Iranian official who said the missile transfer was “a backup plan if Iran was attacked.”
The big picture: Iran’s alleged transfer of missiles and rockets to its clients in Iraq constitutes an escalation, indicating that Tehran is taking greater risks in response to U.S. sanctions enforcement.
Xi Jinping and his colleagues spent the last week feting the leaders from 53 of 54 African nations at the Forum of China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) summit.
What's happening: Xi promised another $60 billion in financing to Africa along with eight initiatives for PRC-Africa cooperation. The $60 billion amount was the same as promised in 2015, but with changes to the composition, as Yun Sun wrote in Brookings Institution note.
Five years after it was announced, China’s massive Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) —which could include upward of $1 trillion in new infrastructure — has yet to materialize on the ground as promised.
The details: According to Chinese President Xi Jinping and other senior officials, the BRI includes six economic corridors that that will carry goods, people and data across Asia and beyond. But a new study shows that Chinese investment is just as likely to go outside those corridors as within them. The BRI appears to be less coordinated than Beijing hopes and some critics fear.
Nauru, an island nation that has formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan, hosted the Forty-Ninth Pacific Islands Forum this week.
Why it matters: It's rare to see any foreign leader take such a strong stance towards Beijing and its growing diplomatic assertiveness. The South Pacific is a focus for Beijing as part of its efforts to pick off Taiwan's few remaining diplomatic allies. Importantly, it's also because the People's Liberation Army is looking for ways to extend beyond the first island chain into the broader Pacific Ocean.
President Trump plans to evaluate public comments before deciding on the latest proposed tariffs on Chinese imports, according to White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow Friday morning, dimming speculation that they could announce the next round as early as today.
Why it matters: Maybe the Chinese will eventually cave, but the White House should be preparing for a much longer and more protracted trade war as China appears to be digging in.
In Idlib, Syria's last opposition-held province, millions are bracing for what could be a catastrophic government assault. UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura called the looming offensive a “perfect storm” that threatens the wellbeing of large numbers of already vulnerable civilians. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo echoed that concern, remarking that many “will suffer from this aggression,” while President Trump cautioned that “hundreds of thousands of people could be killed.”
Why it matters: The warnings are justified. An estimated 3 million civilians reside in the province, many of whom have already been displaced from other parts of Syria by seven years of violence and surrender deals with the government. According to Mistura, more than 2 million people in Idlib are already in need of humanitarian assistance, and the brunt of the expected assault has yet to begin.
An international incident that resulted in one of the largest diplomatic expulsions in history began with a perfume bottle.
The latest: The leaders of the U.S., U.K., France, Germany and Canada declared in a joint statement today that Russian military intelligence officers used a banned chemical weapon in an assassination attempt on British soil. "This operation," they added, "was almost certainly approved at a senior government level." Now, after a painstaking six-month investigation, we know how it happened.
As North Korea haggles over when it will eliminate its nuclear weapons assets, it may be playing for what it can get in exchange while already pivoting to a very different, equally dangerous weapons regime — cyber arms.
What's going on: David Maxwell, a retired Army officer and an expert on North Korea, tells Axios that any key American adversary — China, Iran, Russia or North Korea — is likelier to use cyber than nuclear arms in any war with the U.S.
With Syria's army preparing for a major offensive in Idlib province, the country's last opposition stronghold, the leaders of Russia, Iran and Turkey will gather in Tehran on Friday to discuss a path toward ending the seven-year civil war.
The big picture: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad wants to strike a decisive blow in Idlib, but the three leaders meeting on Friday have clashing concerns and objectives. Meanwhile, the estimated 3 million civilians currently in the northwestern province —many of whom have already relocated from elsewhere due to the war — are in a precarious position.
The Department of Justice announced Thursday it had filed a criminal complaint in June of this year against a North Korean and a North Korean entity for hacking Sony Pictures in 2014, digitally stealing millions of dollars from the bank of Bangladesh, the WannaCry malware attack in 2017 and other attacks.
Why it matters: Until now, North Korea had been the only country of the four major non-U.S. cyber powers that had not seen U.S. indictments, behind Iran, China and Russia.
A joint statement released by the leaders of the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany and Canada supports the conclusions by the British government that officers from the Russian military intelligence service were behind the poisoning of Sergei Skripal.
The big picture: U.K. authorities charged two suspected Russian GRU officers Wednesday with the attempted murder of Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury, England, and claimed that their operation was almost certainly approved at a senior government level.
Investors haven't totally lost their infatuation with Silicon Valley as the heart of tech innovation, but skyrocketing costs of living and competition for talent have definitely cooled the affair, according to several speakers at TechCrunch's Disrupt conference on Wednesday.
Why it matters: As technology and engineering jobs have spread into other industries and locations, more startup founders are questioning whether they need to be in Silicon Valley, though many still acknowledge the region's unique strengths.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will meet in Pyongyang from September 18-20 to discuss "complete denuclearization," the Associated Press reports, citing the South Korean government.
Why it matters: Despite the easing of tensions between the rival Koreas, Kim Jong-un has refused to provide documents related to his country's nuclear weapons, stalling any further progress in talks between North Korea and the United States. Most recently, President Trump cancelled Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's trip to North Korea last month, saying the country was not "making sufficient progress with respect to denuclearization."
