• NSA tried to hack national time centre between2022-24: ministry.
• China finds “irrefutable evidence” NSA-linked hacking attempts.
• Chinese authorities have since “severed attack chains”: ministry.
  

China on Sunday accused the United States of conducting cyberattacks on Beijing’s national time centre that could have caused severe damage to critical financial and telecommunications infrastructure.

Beijing has stepped up espionage warnings in recent years as relations with the United States and other Western nations have worsened.

Chinese authorities found “irrefutable evidence” of efforts by the US National Security Agency (NSA) to hack the National Time Service Center, between 2022 and 2024, according to a statement published on the official Ministry of State Security WeChat account.

The facility is responsible for coordinating clocks around the country used by everything from computer servers to train stations and power grids.

The ministry accused the NSA of exploiting weaknesses in the messaging service of an unspecified foreign mobile phone brand in order to steal login credentials from employees at the time centre.

The attacks could have jeopardised power grids, transport, and even space launches, the ministry said.

Chinese authorities have since “severed attack chains, upgraded protective measures, and eliminated potential threats.”

“In recent years, the United States has aggressively pursued cyber hegemony, repeatedly trampling on international cyberspace rules,” the ministry said in its statement.

It urged Chinese citizens to be vigilant of foreign attacks and to report suspicious activity to the authorities.

Western countries have accused hacker groups allegedly supported by China of conducting a global cyber espionage campaign against figures critical of Beijing, democratic institutions, and companies in various sensitive sectors.

Washington said last year that a China state-sponsored actor was behind a cyber breach at the US Treasury Department.

Beijing at the time called the accusations “groundless”.

“Ironclad evidence proves that the United States is the true ‘hacker empire’ and the greatest source of chaos in cyberspace,” the Chinese Ministry of State Security said Sunday.

US President Donald Trump has responded to Saturday’s anti-Trump “No Kings” rallies taking place across the US in his typical aggressive style, posting an AI-generated video on his Truth Social platform depicting him as a king.

He is shown wearing a crown and piloting a fighter jet that drops filth on anti-Trump protesters, soiling their clothes and causing chaos among the crowd.

Huge crowds took to the streets in all 50 US states at “No Kings” protests on Saturday, venting anger over President Trump’s hardline policies, while Republicans ridiculed them as “Hate America” rallies.

Organisers said seven million people marched in protests spanning New York to Los Angeles, with demonstrations popping up in small cities across the US heartland and even near Trump’s home in Florida.

House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, on Friday echoed a common refrain among his party, labelling the “No Kings” protests “the hate America rally.”

Protesters spanning all age groups took to the streets en masse for “No Kings” rallies across the United States on Saturday, denouncing what they view as authoritarian tendencies and unbridled corruption of US President Donald Trump.

Organisers expected millions of people to turn out by day’s end at more than 2,600 planned rallies in major cities, small towns, and suburbs, challenging a Trump-led agenda that has reshaped the government and upended democratic norms with unprecedented speed since he took office in January.

Demonstrators filled Times Square in New York City, where police said they made “zero protest-related arrests” even as more than 100,000 people rallied peacefully across all five boroughs.

Events in Boston, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Denver, Chicago, and Seattle also drew crowds that each appeared to encompass thousands, if not tens of thousands, of people.

On the West Coast, more than a dozen rallies occurred around the Los Angeles area, including the primary site downtown. In Seattle, demonstrators filled a parade route that stretched for more than a mile from downtown through the Seattle Centre plaza around the city’s landmark Space Needle. More than 25,000 protested peacefully in San Diego, police said.

The protests reflected growing unease among many Americans, mainly on the ideological left, with developments such as the criminal prosecution of Trump’s perceived political enemies, his militarised immigration crackdown, and the sending of National Guard troops into US cities — a move Trump has said was aimed at fighting crime and protecting immigration agents.

Trump has said little about Saturday’s protests. But in an interview with Fox Business aired on Friday, he said that “they’re referring to me as a king – I’m not a king.”

Saturday’s protests were aimed at building on the momentum gained from more than 2,000 “No Kings” protests that were staged on June 14, coinciding with Trump’s 79th birthday and a rare military parade in Washington.

• Ishin, unlike previous LDP partner, won’t be in cabinet.
• Parliamentary vote to choose PM slated for Tuesday.
• Takaichi wants tax cuts, higher spending.
  

Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party and the Japan Innovation Party have broadly agreed to form a coalition government, setting the stage for the country’s first female prime minister, Kyodo news agency reported on Sunday.

Sanae Takaichi, leader of the conservative LDP, and Hirofumi Yoshimura, head of the smaller right-leaning group known as Ishin, are set to sign an agreement sealing their alliance on Monday, Kyodo said.

Calls to the LDP and Ishin headquarters to seek comment went unanswered outside business hours.

Ishin’s co-head, Fumitake Fujita, raised expectations for a deal on Friday, saying the two parties had made “big progress” in coalition talks.

Ishin lawmakers will vote for Takaichi in an election to choose the prime minister in parliament on Tuesday, but the party does not plan to send ministers to Takaichi’s cabinet, at least initially, Kyodo said.

That would fall short of the full-fledged alliance the LDP maintained with the Komeito party until the junior partner quit the coalition this month, raising concern over the stability of the forthcoming government.

Ishin’s Fujita told reporters on Sunday evening that negotiations were in the final stages and his fellow lawmakers entrusted Yoshimura and him to make a final decision on the matter for the party.

He said their decision will be announced on Monday, but declined to go into details.

“I don’t know how the picture we will paint tomorrow will be evaluated, but I think we are heading into tomorrow while the relationship of trust is deepening substantially, and I believe that’s what the other party is thinking,” Fujita said.

Takaichi’s path to succeed Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba had seemed all but certain after she won the presidency of the long-ruling LDP early this month. But then Komeito quit the 26-year coalition with the LDP, setting off a flurry of negotiations with rival parties to select the next premier.

In an effort to get Ishin on board, the LDP offered to keep working towards banning donations from companies and other organisations and exempting food items from Japan’s sales tax, Kyodo said.

Ishin has proposed eliminating the tax on food items for two years.

Takaichi, a fiscal dove, has called for higher spending and tax cuts to cushion consumers from rising inflation and has criticised the Bank of Japan’s decision to raise interest rates.

She favours revising Japan’s pacifist postwar constitution to recognise the role of its expanding military.

Takaichi is a regular visitor to the Yasukuni shrine honouring Japan’s war dead, including some executed war criminals, and is viewed by some Asian neighbours as a symbol of the nation’s past militarism.