AFP

Apple limited file-sharing for Chinese iPhone users Thursday, a month after reports that anti-government protesters were using the function to share digital leaflets with strangers.

Under the update to the AirDrop function, users of smartphones sold by Apple in China can only opt in to receive files from non-contacts for a 10-minute window before it automatically shuts off. The feature did not previously have a time limit.

The update, rolled out in the operating system released overnight, makes it virtually impossible to receive unexpected files from strangers.

The change follows widespread reports of people using AirDrop to spread leaflets critical of the Chinese Communist Party in crowded public spaces, partly inspired by a protest in Beijing in which a man hung banners calling for the removal of President Xi Jinping.

Chinese censors quickly scrubbed online videos and posts referring to the protest, while hundreds of users on the popular payment and chat app WeChat had their accounts blocked after speaking about the rare act of rebellion.

Apple did not respond immediately to AFP’s request for comment and did not give a reason for the specific change.

It said in its update description for users the operating system now “includes bug fixes and security updates”.

Apple phones sold outside mainland China did not appear to be affected by the update, while iPhones sold in China displayed the limit regardless of which country the user’s App Store account was based in.

The California-based tech giant, which touts security and privacy protections as key features of its devices, has previously faced criticism for alleged concessions to Beijing.

That included opening a data centre in China, as well as removing an app in 2019 that allowed Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters to keep track of police.

It has also faced boycott threats in China as it stands in the crossfire of US-China tensions, with Beijing warning in 2020 that it could turn its citizens against Apple if Washington blocked Chinese apps.

Some Chinese social media users on Thursday hailed the iPhone update as a positive step in preventing unsolicited messages from strangers. One Weibo user said the change would “greatly reduce the probability of iPhone users being harassed”.

A handful questioned why the function was only being rolled out on Chinese iPhones, with one Weibo commenter joking about Apple CEO Tim Cook’s friendliness with Beijing: “So is Tim Cook a Party member or not?”

Asian stocks fell on Thursday after inconclusive US midterm election results and a cryptocurrency crisis hammered markets.

The uncertainty, especially about how the midterm results would impact inflation, transferred from Wall Street to Asia overnight.

Hong Kong dropped 1.7 percent while Tokyo shed nearly one percent and Shanghai also closed lower. Seoul, Sydney, Jakarta and Taipei also fell.

London, Paris, and Frankfurt all opened on Thursday in the red, continuing the slide in European markets.

“A purple dilemma might be the best way to describe the red-blue tangle that emerged Wednesday. It’ll be gridlock, that’s for sure,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said of the US midterms where the Democrats did better than expected, although Congress will likely be divided.

“Perhaps not the friendliest kind for market participants, many of whom were hoping for a more resounding rebuke of Democrats given inflation realities.”

All eyes are expected to turn to US inflation data, due later Thursday, to gauge the speed of future rate hikes by the Federal Reserve. 

“US growth looks still too strong to bring inflation down,” Tapas Strickland of National Australia Bank said in a note.

“The ongoing resilience in the (consumer prices) data and stickiness in inflation continue to point to the Fed hiking rates closer to 5.0 percent or higher.” 

Fed officials have raised their policy rate to a range of between 3.75 to 4.0 percent.

– ‘Crypto tumult’ –

Markets in Asia were already grappling with the impact of strict zero-Covid measures in China, with supply chains and activity slowed by harsh lockdowns and testing policies. 

“China’s domestic demand is weak and their key trading partners are entering recession territory,” said Edward Moya from Oanda. 

“China is also continuing to struggle with COVID as Guangzhou has to return to mass testing.”

The crypto world was also rocked by a surprise decision from Binance, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency platform, to scrap a possible acquisition of rival FTX.com a day after disclosing it had signed a non-binding letter of intent to buy it.

The near-collapse of FTX has plunged bitcoin to a two-year low.

“FTX’s slump from over a $32 bn valuation to zero in less than a few days raises numerous issues,” said Stephen Innes.

“This is far from fringe buyers taking a hit on the back of support from stimulus-check and crypto enthusiasts. Prominent investors are wearing eggs on their faces after diving in head first.”

He added that gold and silver will be the biggest beneficiaries of the crypto fallout with investors looking to the trusted precious metals for stability.

– Key figures around 0725 GMT –

London – FTSE 100: DOWN 0.17 percent at 7,284.15 

Frankfurt – DAX: DOWN 0.44 percent at 13,621.27 

Paris – CAC 40: DOWN 0.32 percent at 6,409.72 

Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.98 percent at 27,446.10 (close) 

Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 1.7 percent at 16,081.04 (close)

Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 0.39 percent at 3,036.13 (close)

Pound/dollar: UP at $1.1385 from $1.1352  

Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0001 from $1.0017 

Dollar/yen: DOWN at 146.26 yen from 146.37 yen 

Euro/pound: DOWN at 87.84 pence from 88.19 pence 

West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 0.55 percent at $85.36 per barrel

Brent North Sea crude: DOWN 0.36 percent at $92.32 per barrel

New York – Dow: DOWN 2.0 percent at 32,513.94 (close)

Mongolia is ramping up efforts to export coal to energy-hungry China, a government official told AFP, despite global efforts to end the use of the polluting fossil fuel.

World leaders are gathering at the COP27 conference in Sharm el-Sheikh to hash out the future of the planet, and China’s role in global carbon emissions has been front and centre.

Mongolia already sends 86 percent of its exports to China, with coal accounting for more than half the total, and is upgrading its infrastructure in the hopes of selling even more to its southern neighbour.

“We need to use this window of opportunity, use the next 10 years to be able to export as much coal as we can,” deputy mining minister Batnairamdal Otgonshar told AFP.

China is the world’s largest polluter and has pledged to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. To that end, it is building out its renewable power grid to prepare for a move away from coal.

But its need for power far exceeds what renewable sources can supply. Chinese authorities ordered producers in spring to add 300 million tonnes of mining capacity this year — the equivalent of an extra month of coal production.

And Mongolia is keen to chip in, shipping 19 million metric tons of coal to China so far this year, according to the National Statistical Office, already exceeding 2021’s 16 million total.

Government officials want Mongolia to surpass the record 37 million tons sent in 2019 and to keep supplying China with a steady stream of coal well into the next decade, Batnairamdal said.

“Coking demand won’t decline in the next 10 years, but the technology may change,” he said. “The next 10 years remain an opportunity.”

Batnairamdal is pushing for Mongolia to invest heavily in coal, and new railways to connect to China’s ports and processing plants.

– ‘Window of opportunity’ –

Time is running out for Mongolia to sell off its thermal coal — used by power plants to make electricity — Batnairamdal said, as coal-fired plants are being phased out.

Soaring prices also mean there is little incentive for Ulaanbaatar to slow down. The value of Mongolia’s coal exports jumped to $4.5 billion in the first nine months of 2022, almost triple what they were over the same period last year.

An unofficial ban on Australian coal sparked by political disputes in 2020 has also opened the door wider to Mongolian exporters, analysts say.

“Without Australia, China’s appetite for low sulphur coking coal creates substantial demand for Mongolian miners,” said Simon Wu, a senior consultant at Wood Mackenzie, a research and consultancy group.

Mongolia missed their chance to export more coal to China after Australian imports fell off, Wu said, blaming a lack of railway connections.

Politicians in Ulaanbaatar are now working to fix that.

Ulaanbaatar finished a 233-kilometre (145 mile) rail line from the Tavan Tolgoi mine to the Gashuun Sukhait border in September, a project that took 14 years to complete.

Analysts also say relative political stability in Mongolia could help the government finish other long-delayed projects. 

– ‘Trade will open up’ –

Tumentsogt Tsevegmid, chairman of the Business Council of Mongolia, told AFP the infrastructure now in place, combined with projects already in progress, could allow Mongolia to push coal exports to 70 million tons annually, possibly by 2025.

“If China is willing to import more coal, and there is more work done to improve borders and railways lines, then trade will open up,” Tumentsogt said.

With a population of just 3.3 million, Mongolia has little heavy industry and does not by itself consume much coal compared to its southern neighbour. 

It accounts for just 0.11 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, according to the United Nations, but is already being severely affected by climate change.

Strong winter storms, along with drought and wildfires, have displaced communities, forcing nomadic families into the capital after losing their livestock. 

The United Nations says climate change is making these natural disasters more common in Mongolia, with overcrowding in unplanned areas of Ulaanbaatar leading to soil and air pollution — especially in winter, when raw coal is burned in residential stoves to fend off freezing temperatures.

“The contradiction will remain,” said Tumentsogt, when asked about Mongolia both producing coal for export while also investing in renewables.

“Mongolia has a dilemma, it needs short-term cash revenue to meet its fiscal needs and at the same time is trying to invest in costly renewables to reduce its carbon footprint, reduce air pollution and contribute to global sustainability efforts.”

Tumentsogt said Mongolia’s cash crunch has only one fix for now — sell more coal. 

“Coal deliveries and exports will remain as one of the major sources of revenue for the government and there are no other sources that can replace this fiscal need.”

Twitter launched two new verification tools Wednesday but “killed” one of them hours later in a messy start to owner Elon Musk’s campaign to revamp the influential platform following his $44 billion buyout.

The social media platform unveiled its long-awaited Twitter Blue subscription service, which allows users to pay $7.99 per month for a coveted blue tick, as well as a separate gray “official” badge for some high-profile accounts.

But the new gray label was almost immediately scrapped, overshadowing the launch of Twitter Blue, which is currently only available on the mobile app on iPhones and in the United States.

“I just killed it,” Musk tweeted hours after the new tag was added to government accounts, big companies and major media outlets.

“Please note that Twitter will do lots of dumb things in coming months. We will keep what works & change what doesn’t,” the world’s richest man added.

The U-turn invited further scrutiny of Musk’s plans for Twitter a week after he laid off thousands of workers and drew a massive drop in spending by advertisers, who are wary of the site’s direction.

The blue tick has been a mark of an account’s authenticity and doubts emerged that public figures or media outlets would pay for it. The official gray tag was seen by observers as a workaround to solve that problem.

The launch of the new official label began Wednesday and was on the accounts of companies such as Apple and BMW, as well as public ones such as the White House and major media outlets.

But only hours later, it was gone for many of them.

Accounts that had received the “official” badge — including Agence France-Presse, BBC News, Pope Francis and Kanye West — saw the mention disappear.

– ‘A lot of work’ –

Esther Crawford, an executive who announced the gray tick on Tuesday, insisted that the official label was still going to be part of the relaunch, but that “we are just focusing on government and commercial entities to begin with.”

“There are no sacred cows in product at Twitter anymore. Elon is willing to try lots of things — many will fail, some will succeed,” she tweeted Wednesday.

“The goal is to find the right mix of successful changes to ensure the long-term health and growth of the business.”

During a panel for advertisers broadcast on Twitter, Musk exercised some damage control, admitting that a lot of work lay ahead to get the site to the place he wished to reach.

“We’ve got a lot to do on the software side. I can’t emphasize that enough,” he said.

Musk took control of Twitter after a drawn-out legal battle in which the mercurial tycoon tried to renege on a deal that many believe he overpaid for.

It emerged on Tuesday that Musk sold $4 billion worth of shares in Tesla to help pay for a transaction in which he took on billions of dollars in debt.

Twitter Blue is seen as one way to overcome the loss in advertisers since Musk took over.

Twitter last week fired half of its 7,500 employees, which Musk said was necessary as the company was losing $4 million a day.