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How an Arizona “spy balloon” company is connected to Sen. Mark Kelly and China

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How an Arizona “spy balloon” company is connected to Sen. Mark Kelly and China


Photograph: Courtesy of World View Enterprises

An Arizona firm that manufactures and operates high-altitude surveillance balloons, and contracts with the federal authorities, faces renewed consideration within the aftermath of the destruction of a spy balloon despatched by the Chinese language authorities that entered U.S. airspace earlier this month.

  • As lately as seven years in the past, the corporate secured funds from Chinese language buyers.

Context: Tucson-based World View, cofounded by now-U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly in 2012, obtained enterprise capital from Tencent — among the many largest tech firms in China — each in 2013 and 2016.

  • Tencent, like most Chinese language tech giants, has shut ties to the Chinese language Communist Get together.
  • Sure, however: World View president and CEO Ryan Hartman advised The Arizona Republic in 2020 that Tencent had “zero entry, zero enter and 0 management” over the corporate.

Of notice: When Tencent made its investments, World View was principally centered on house tourism. Tencent says it stopped investing after the Arizona firm pivoted to a defense-oriented enterprise.

  • Right this moment, World View contracts with the U.S. authorities and personal firms to supply aerial surveillance through balloon.
  • About 65% of the corporate’s work final yr was “protection associated,” Hartman advised Breaking Protection.
  • The Pentagon’s Protection Counterintelligence Safety Company examined World View in 2019 and cleared the corporate to deal with army work, The Republic reported.

State of play: A high-altitude balloon despatched by the Chinese language authorities was downed by an American fighter plane off the coast of South Carolina in early February. The U.S. authorities believes it was getting used for surveillance functions.

Why it issues: That occasion escalated tensions between the U.S. and China and raised considerations over Chinese language authorities surveillance and affect in American companies.

  • Claire Chu, senior China analyst at protection intelligence firm Janes, tells Axios Phoenix the balloon gives a possibility to extra rigorously look at Chinese language holdings in essential U.S. industries, together with Tencent’s funding in World View.
  • “It is simply not look to have one of many largest Chinese language buyers, a Chinese language firm that is concerned in a variety of essential applied sciences again dwelling, concerned in potential U.S. surveillance capabilities right here,” she says.

What they’re saying: Nationwide safety and world financial specialists advised us Tencent’s funding in World View was “odd” however not essentially trigger for concern.

  • American Enterprise Institute researcher Derek Scissors tells us many Chinese language firms invested in seemingly random U.S. leisure and tourism companies round 2016 in an try to maneuver cash out of China.
  • “We now have a really small stake within the firm, with no board seat or funding rights,” Tencent stated in a press release to Axios. “We invested when the enterprise mannequin centered on house tourism. As soon as the enterprise shifted, we stopped investing and now not have any energetic communications with the corporate.”
A man at a podium.
Mark Kelly speaks throughout a marketing campaign occasion in Phoenix on Nov. 2. Photograph: Patrick T. Fallon/AFP through Getty Photos

Zoom out: Kelly stopped working with World View in 2019, forward of his first Senate run.

  • In 2021, he positioned his World View inventory, price at the least $100,000, in a blind belief, in line with federal monetary disclosure paperwork.
  • “As a fight veteran, he is pleased with the essential function that Arizona performs in growing applied sciences in partnership with our army to maintain our nation protected,” Jacob Peters, a spokesperson for Kelly, advised us of the senator’s involvement.

Flashback: In 2014, former World View CEO Jane Poynter advised Chinese language information outlet Pengpai that Kelly met with Tencent USA head David Wallerstein and “launched house tourism expertise to him,” Poynter stated. “David was very and keen to take a position at this stage” after talking with Kelly, in line with the article translated from Chinese language.

  • In 2020, Kelly advised The Arizona Republic, “I had a really temporary dialog with one particular person [from Tencent] that lasted about 30 seconds, perhaps a minute.”

The large image: Chinese language funding within the U.S. exploded in 2016, after the Chinese language authorities allowed its companies to hunt extra outdoors investments, Mark Witzke of Rhodium Group tells Axios.

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  • Funding dropped once more in 2018 after China reversed its insurance policies, the U.S. elevated regulation of worldwide funding and the geopolitical relationship between the 2 nations grew strained.

By the numbers: Chinese language firms invested greater than $85 billion in American companies between 2016 and 2017, greater than the earlier 15 years mixed, per Rhodium Group information. Quick-forward and investments dropped as little as $5.8 billion in 2021.

  • Actuality examine: These numbers are low, together with solely transactions during which a Chinese language firm took at the least a ten% stake in a U.S. firm. Many smaller investments are stored non-public.
  • For example, Tencent’s World View investments usually are not included in these numbers and have become recognized solely as a result of the businesses willingly disclosed the partnership.

Zoom in: Tencent started investing in U.S. firms earlier than 2016, buying California-based esports firm Riot Video games in 2011, and has continued to take a position even after regulatory crackdowns.

However, however, however: Scrutiny of Tencent’s prolific investing, particularly because it pertains to nationwide safety infrastructure, just isn’t with out benefit, Chu stated.

What to look at: Final month, World View entered right into a reverse merger settlement that’ll permit it to go public with an estimated enterprise worth of $350 million.

  • As such, will probably be required to disclose extra details about its buyers, however will not essentially must share particulars about previous offers, just like the one with Tencent, Scissors famous.



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Arizona

Report of shots fired at Phoenix Sky Harbor prompts heavy police presence

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Report of shots fired at Phoenix Sky Harbor prompts heavy police presence


PHOENIX (AZFamily) — Gunshots reportedly rang out at Terminal 4 of Phoenix Sky Harbor on Christmas night.

Airport officials tell Arizona’s Family that police responded to reports of gunfire around 9:40 p.m. on Wednesday.

One security checkpoint and the PHX Sky Train was temporarily closed as part of the investigation, however the areas have since reopened.

At this time, police have not confirmed if anyone is injured or if anyone has been taken into custody in connection with the shooting.

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Arizona’s Family has a crew on scene. Check back for updates

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Harkins Theatres invites Sun Devil fans to watch Peach Bowl

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Harkins Theatres invites Sun Devil fans to watch Peach Bowl


Can’t make the trip to Atlanta for Arizona State football’s Peach Bowl matchup versus Texas? Harkins Theatres has you covered.

The Valley-owned theatre is inviting Sun Devil fans to watch the Peach Bowl live on the big screen at two locations: Harkins Tempe Marketplace and Camelview at Scottsdale Fashion Square.

Fans can show off their Sun Devil pride and experience the “ultimate gameday setting” with tickets for $22 that include a complimentary small popcorn.

Kickoff is at 11 a.m. on Jan. 1. A win over Texas would propel Arizona State into the College Football semifinals, where it’ll play the winner of Oregon-Ohio State.

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Fans can get their tickets on Harkins’ website or in person at the Camelview at Scottsdale Fashion Square or Tempe Marketplace box offices.

Sun Devils grateful for support

Arizona State getting into the College Football Playoff, or even winning the Big 12 alone, was unprecedented.

The Sun Devils are the talk of the Valley right now, and whether it’s from those traveling across the country to watch in person or cheering from home in the Valley, the team is thankful for all the support they’re getting.

“I’m grateful and blessed to be in the corner that (Sun Devil fans) want to be supporting,” Arizona State running back Cam Skattebo said. “I know what it costs and what it takes to get there. It’s nice to have those people that try their hardest to get there and could be spending every dollar in their bank account to get there.”

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‘We are united’: how Arizona’s attorney general plans to manage border chaos

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‘We are united’: how Arizona’s attorney general plans to manage border chaos


Kris Mayes, the attorney general of Arizona, has vowed to fight the incoming Trump administration over key aspects of its immigration policy, including any attempt to set up deportation camps on Arizonan soil or remove thousands of migrant “dreamers” who came to the US as children.

In an interview with the Guardian, Mayes said that any move by Donald Trump in his second presidential term to unpick the rights of dreamers to remain and work in the US would be a “bright red line for me. I will not stand for an attempt to deport them, or undermine them.”

Arizona, a critical border state that will be on the frontline of the struggle over Trump’s plans for mass deportations, has more than 30,000 dreamers, undocumented migrants who entered the US unlawfully as children but who were afforded rights under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (Daca). The program was introduced by Barack Obama in 2012 but has been under relentless attack by Republicans ever since.

“I definitely will be fighting on behalf of dreamers,” Mayes said. “These folks are firefighters, police officers, teachers – they are part of the very fabric of our state and we will protect them.”

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Trump tried to scrap Daca protections during his first presidency and was only stopped by a narrow ruling from the US supreme court. He recently softened his position, telling NBC News that he wanted to find a way to allow dreamers to stay in the country, though his apparent U-turn has left many skeptical of his intentions.

The Daca program is already being challenged by Republican states in a lawsuit that is currently before the ultra-conservative fifth circuit court of appeals. The case is almost certain to reach the supreme court, which has a six-to-three supermajority of rightwing justices.

Despite the hurdles facing dreamers, Mayes said she remains optimistic.

“I think the supreme court will ultimately see the merits of protecting them. We want to give the courts the opportunity to make the right decision here, and we’ll be making very strong arguments on that proposition,” she said.

Arizona’s attorney general also had strong words about any attempt by Trump to construct detention camps in her state as part of his plans to mass-deport millions of undocumented immigrants. She said her army of lawyers were also primed to push back on any move to renew family separation, the policy under which thousands of children were taken away from their parents at the Mexican border as part of a “zero tolerance” strategy.

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“If Trump tries to engage in family separation, or build mass deportation camps, I will do everything I can legally to fight that. That is not happening in Arizona, not on our soil,” she said.

Mayes added that family separation – which has left up to 1,000 families still rent apart six years later – was “fundamentally anathema to who Arizonans are”.

Mayes and her team have been preparing for months for the anticipated whirlwind of activity as soon as Trump re-enters the White House on 20 January. They have “scoured”, as she put it, Project 2025, the rightwing playbook for a Trump second term compiled by the Heritage Foundation.

She has also been working closely with other Democratic state attorneys general, noting that between them they filed more than 100 lawsuits during Trump’s first presidency, winning 80% of them.

“One of our strengths is that we are doing this very much together, we are united and we are organized,” Mayes said.

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The importance of cross-state cooperation is likely to be all the more critical over border issues.

Mayes said that she was working with her Democratic counterparts Rob Bonta of California and Raúl Torrez of New Mexico – with only the Republican attorney general of Texas, Ken Paxton, taking a very different, anti-immigrant approach.

“Three of the four border states have attorneys general in Democratic hands and we are going to fight for due process and for individual rights,” she explained.

A complicating factor is Proposition 314, the ballot measure passed in Arizona in November with a resounding 63% of the vote. It allows state police to arrest any undocumented person who crosses into the US other than at legal ports of entry.

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Mayes said that the decision would not deter her from resisting Trump’s unconstitutional moves.

“Proposition 314 tells us that Arizonans are fed up with a dysfunctional border,” she said.

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“We are facing a serious fentanyl crisis in our state, and there’s no doubt that Arizonans want our border addressed. But when Arizonans voted for Donald Trump they did not vote to shred the Arizona and US constitution – I strongly believe that.”

What was needed at the border was more federal resources to increase border patrol boots on the ground, boost the interception of fentanyl, and enhance prosecution of drug cartels. What was not needed, Mayes insisted, was Trump’s threatened plan to send in the national guard and even the US military to act as a souped-up deportation force.

“There’s nothing more unAmerican than using the military against Americans,” she said. “It’s clearly unconstitutional, and it’s not something Arizonans want to see.”

Since being elected to the position of Arizona’s top law enforcement officer in 2022, Mayes has established herself as a rising star in the Democratic party capable of negotiating the at times fraught politics of a border state. Her most high-profile act came in April when she indicted 18 people including Trump’s former lawyer Rudy Giuliani and former chief of staff Mark Meadows for participating in the 2020 “fake electors” conspiracy.

A similar prosecution of fake electors in Georgia was recently upended after an appeals court disqualified the Atlanta prosecutor in charge of the case, Fani Willis.

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Mayes told the Guardian that despite Trump’s victory in November, she had no intention of dropping the fake electors case. “These indictments were handed down by a state grand jury, and you don’t do justice by popular vote. The case is in the courts now, and that’s where it’s going to stay until it’s over.”

Such a prominent prosecution could place her in the crosshairs of Kash Patel, Trump’s pick for director of the FBI. Should Patel be confirmed for the job by the US Senate, he has made it clear he will pursue revenge investigations against those deemed to be Trump’s enemies.

Mayes didn’t want to discuss Patel’s nomination. But she did say: “I’m not afraid of anyone. I’m going to do my job, uphold the law and protect Arizonans. I’m going to do it no matter who is at the helm of the FBI.”



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