QINGDAO, China — China remains committed to resolving maritime disputes with other countries through dialogue but will not allow itself to be “abused,” a top military official said at a meeting of senior foreign naval officials in the port city of Qingdao on Monday.

The sea should not be an arena where countries can flex their “gunboat muscles”, added Zhang Youxia, vice chairman of the Central Military Commission and China’s second-highest-ranking military official.

“Reality has shown that those who make deliberate provocations, stoke tensions, or support one side against another for selfish gains will ultimately only hurt themselves,” Mr. Zhang said during the opening ceremony of the Western Pacific Naval Symposium at the upscale St Regis hotel.

The comments were an apparent reference to growing tensions in the South China Sea, where Washington treaty ally Manila is in a fraught standoff with Beijing over the strategic waterway, a potential flashpoint for US-China relations.

Zhang also told the gathered delegates that “carrying out maritime containment, encirclement and island blockades will only plunge the world into a vortex of division and turbulence.”

The event overlaps with annual U.S.-Philippines large-scale joint military drills, which begin on Monday and will be held outside Philippine territorial waters for the first time.

Tensions are particularly high around the Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea, where Manila has accused Beijing of “harassment,” including the use of water cannons against Philippine vessels.

The symposium is a rare opportunity for countries with opposing regional interests to exchange views. Pacific Fleet Commander Admiral Stephen Koehler is attending from the United States. Other delegations include Australia, France, India, Russia and Britain.

The Philippines did not attend despite being a member nation of the forum.

“This is a very good opportunity to hold bilateral talks with each navy — not only on AUKUS, but on broader maritime topics,” said Captain Takuo Kobayashi, a senior official with the Japanese naval delegation. “The Chinese Navy are building up their muscles in the South China Sea quickly, so I’m paying a lot of attention to the Chinese Navy’s developments.” — Reuters

WASHINGTON — North Korean animators may have helped create popular television cartoons for big Western firms, including Amazon and HBO Max, despite international sanctions on North Korea, a research report has found.

Researchers discovered files on a North Korean internet server that included animations, written instructions and comments that appear to relate to projects under production for the foreign studios, the report from the Washington-based 38 North project released on Monday said.

Among those projects were Invincible, an Amazon Original animated series produced by California-based Skybound Entertainment and Iyanu, Child of Wonder, an animé about a superhero created by Maryland-based YouNeek Studios and due to air this year on HBO Max.

US sanctions prohibit almost all commercial activity between US citizens and North Korean entities.

Michael Barnhart, who works on North Korea issues at Mandiant, a computer security company owned by Google, and worked with 38 North on the project, said there was nothing to indicate the Western companies had knowledge of the arrangements, which appeared to involve subcontracting of work to China.

“There’s no way that anyone could have known it, except for the operational security error which exposed it,” he said.

Amazon spokespersons declined comment and referred Reuters to Skybound Entertainment.

Skybound said it had no knowledge of any North Korean companies working on its animation, but took the allegations seriously and had initiated a thorough internal review to verify and rectify any potential issues.

“We have also notified the proper authorities and are cooperating with all appropriate bodies,” its head of corporate communications Hannah Cosgrove said.

HBO Max and YouNeek did not respond to requests for comment.

The report said that after discovering the files, two researchers kept watch on the server and observed traffic throughout January.

“Each day, a new batch of files would appear that included instructions for animation work and the results of that day’s work,” the report said.

“Often the files contained editing comments and instructions in Chinese, presumably written by the production company, along with a translation of those instructions into Korean,” it said.

“This suggests a go-between was responsible for relaying information between the production companies and the animators.”

The report said the identity of the person, or persons, uploading the files could not be determined, nor of the North Korean entity involved.

WESTERN ANIMATION PROJECTS
North Korea’s premier animation house is the Pyongyang-based April 26 Animation Studio, also known as SEK Studio, which has worked in the past on international projects. In 2016, the US Treasury department designated it a North Korean state-owned enterprise and put it under sanctions.

The report noted that in 2021 and 2022 the US government also imposed sanctions on Chinese companies that have worked with the studio or acted as a go-between.

38 North said files found on the server related to a range of projects, including Season 3 of Invincible. The report said a document on the server carried the name of the series and “Viltruminte Pants LLC,” part of the Skybound group.

Working with Mandiant, the researchers examined access logs for the server, which included three internet addresses in China.

Two of the latter were registered to China’s Liaoning Province, which neighbors North Korea and where there are many North Korean-operated businesses and North Korean IT workers.

Mandiant’s Mr. Barnhart told Reuters he assessed “with high confidence” that the animation contracts had been outsourced to North Korea by a front company, apparently in China.

China’s Washington embassy said Beijing strictly implemented UN prohibitions on dealings with North Korea but added that sanctions were not a solution to the North Korea issue. North Korea’s UN mission did not respond to a request for comment.

BETTER PAY IN CHINA
Choi Seong-guk, a North Korean defector web cartoonist who worked at SEK Studio between 1996 and 2002, told Reuters the studio had a team assigned for joint work with foreign studios.

Choi, who quit the state-run studio over low pay, said some fellow North Korean cartoonists also left and went to work overseas, mostly in China, where they were construction workers on paper but in reality created animation for Chinese clients.

“By doing that in China, they are paid $100 per month … compared to $1 back home,” he said.

In 2022, the U.S. Departments of State and Treasury and the Federal Bureau of Investigation issued an advisory warning businesses about the risk of inadvertently hiring North Korean IT workers and said this could put them in violation of U.S. and U.N. sanctions.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Treasury said it does not comment on “potential investigations or sanctions violations as general practice” but North Korea’s efforts to generate revenue for its weapons programs through cybercrime and abuse of contractors was a concern. — Reuters

GREEN BAY, Wisconsin — Thin with a boyish face and earrings in both ears, 23-year-old Isayah Turner does not look like a stereotypical Trump supporter, who tend to be middle aged or older.

Nevertheless, Mr. Turner drove two hours from his home outside Milwaukee on a recent Tuesday to see Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at a rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, one of a contingent of young voters there that some opinion polls suggest could be a growing and important demographic for Trump.

For Democratic incumbent Joseph R. Biden, who overwhelmingly won the youth vote in 2020, an erosion of his support among young voters could potentially dampen his hopes of a second term.

Mr. Turner, who runs a dog breeding business with his mother, voted for Mr. Trump in 2020. He supports Trump’s pro-oil drilling stance, his opposition to gun control — Mr. Turner owns several firearms — and his pledge to crack down on illegal immigration.

“I cannot think of one thing that Trump did that upset me while he was in office. And now with Biden in office there are countless things I disagree with,” Mr. Turner told Reuters. “A lot of my friends are on the same page as me.”

A Reuters/Ipsos poll in March showed Americans age 18-29 favoring Mr. Biden over Mr. Trump by just 3 percentage points — 29% to 26% — with the rest favoring another candidate or unsure of who if anyone would get their vote.

If Trump, 77, stays close to Mr. Biden, 81, in this demographic all the way to Election Day on Nov. 5 it would be a major gain compared to 2020, when Mr. Biden won the youth vote by 24 points.

Concerns about Mr. Biden’s age and his support of Israel in its war against Hamas in Gaza have fueled the erosion of his support among young voters at a time he is also losing Hispanic voters.

There are also signs young people are slowly warming to the Republican Party, despite Mr. Biden’s efforts to keep them on side by trying to cancel student debt, expand affordable housing and reverse curbs on abortion rights.

The share of Americans between 18-29 who identify as Republicans has ticked higher, from 24% in 2016 to 26% in 2020 and 28% so far this year, Reuters/Ipsos polling shows.

Despite a mixture of cold winds, sleet and rain, some 3,000 Trump supporters lined up outside a Green Bay convention center on April 2 to see Mr. Trump. The crowd skewed older, as usual, but there were hundreds of young people as well.

Reuters interviewed 20 people under the age of 30 to understand their support. The most common reason given for backing the former president was inflation and the perception the economy was not working for them, underscoring how the rise in prices for daily staples is more salient for some than high stock prices and low unemployment during the Biden years.

“I make decent money and I can’t afford a home on the salary I make now,” said Steve Wendt, 26, a security guard at a nearby hospital. “It’s time to get a man back into office that is going to lower our prices.”

At the same time, a majority said they agreed with Trump’s reticence about aiding Ukraine in its war with Russia, an isolationist stance at odds with Biden’s foreign policy agenda.

Collin Crego, 19, a history student, said funds spent overseas would be better used to tackle domestic issues like drug addiction.

“I don’t really like what we are doing with Ukraine,” Mr. Crego said. “When I hear him (Trump) talk, he’s very patriotic, very ‘America First’ and I like that.”

Of the 20 people Reuters interviewed, 15 cited inflation or other economic concerns for why they support Trump, while a dozen said his plan to restrict immigration was important to them.

All said they were unbothered by the four criminal cases Trump is facing, or the idea that his efforts to overturn the 2020 election made him a threat to democracy. One was Black, the other 19 were white. Eight will be casting their first presidential ballot this year.

Caitlyn Huenink, 20, said being a young Trump supporter can be hard because left-leaning young people tend to frown on her views. She said, however, that she has recently seen changes among her peer group at University of Wisconsin–Green Bay.

“They’re more open to the way I think and more of my friends are becoming Republican,” she said.

‘MAKING ENDS MEET’
To be sure, a group of young people willing to brave inclement weather to see Mr. Trump are not a representative sample of the broader electorate, and polling this early in the cycle could prove off. Younger people vote less frequently than older Americans, making them especially difficult to predict.

Moreover, some opinion surveys indicate that Biden is holding on to his significant advantage with the youth.

An Economist/YouGov poll conducted last week showed 51% of voters under 30 picking Mr. Biden, versus 32% for Mr. Trump, while the Harvard Youth Poll, released Thursday, put Mr. Biden’s lead over Trump among likely young voters at 19 points.

“Donald Trump is not winning the youth vote,” John Della Volpe, director in charge of the Harvard poll, told Reuters.

The Biden campaign is not sitting still. In March it launched a $30-million ad buy across digital platforms and announced a project to reach students and recruit volunteers in high schools and on college campuses. It is working to inform younger people of the administration’s investments in green energy and efforts to protect abortion access.

“That’s why the campaign is working tirelessly to earn the votes of young voters — investing earlier than ever and leveraging every opportunity to connect with young voters,” said Eve Levenson, the campaign’s youth engagement director.

The latest Marist College poll was nevertheless a red flag for Mr. Biden. Conducted in March, it showed Mr. Trump 2 points ahead among Millennial and Gen-Z voters, with 61% of 18-29 year olds saying they disapprove of the job Biden is doing as president.

The Trump campaign sees young people as a demographic for potential gains in 2024, a campaign adviser told reporters last month. He said the economy and overseas conflicts — Trump often claims Russia’s attack on Ukraine would not have happened on his watch — were key topics to message about to this group.

“Like many Americans, young people can’t afford rent, gas, or groceries, and they’re struggling to buy a home because real wages have plummeted,” said Anna Kelly, a spokesperson for the Republican National Committee.

Ms. Kelly also pointed to a finding in the Harvard poll — that only 9% percent of young Americans think the U.S. is on the right track — as proof that some were turning to Mr. Trump.

Among young voters, Mr. Trump appears to be doing better with males. The Harvard poll put Mr. Biden’s lead among young men at just six percentage points, down 20 points from 4 years ago. Mr. Trump’s deficit with women was 33 points, largely unchanged.

Della Volpe says that gender gap likely reflects several factors. One is that young men feel they are losing the right to speak frankly due to progressive views they believe are imposed on them about political correctness and toxic masculinity. These concerns are reinforced by Mr. Trump and podcasters like Jordan Peterson, popular with young men.

Mr. Trump has attended several Ultimate Fighting Championship events this election cycle, which are favored by young men. He also showed up at a Philadelphia sneaker convention where he put his golden “Never Surrender High-Tops” up for sale.

It was the kind of campaign stop meant to resonate with voters like Turner, a sneaker aficionado who was wearing a $400 pair of Nikes when Reuters spent an afternoon with him at his dog business two days after the rally.

Mr. Turner talked about the challenges of operating a business. He said gasoline was a major expense as he frequently drives to breeders hours away.

Mr. Turner said it was his Trump-loving mother, a former backer of President Barack Obama, who got him interested in politics.

Like other young people Reuters met at the rally, Mr. Turner said it was Mr. Trump’s way of speaking without care for the political consequences that made him attractive. He said some of Mr. Trump’s dehumanizing rhetoric bothers him, but he believes -— as Mr. Trump has claimed — that Mr. Biden is the true threat to America.

“Some of it is extreme,” Mr. Turner said of Mr. Trump’s speech. “But at the same time if it means the country is going to do phenomenally better… and it’s still going to be a free country I can take my feelings getting hurt in exchange for that.” — Reuters