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BEIJING — China's top prosecutor urged law enforcement officials across the country on Friday to focus efforts on combating drug trafficking, capping a week in which Beijing and Washington announced a rare joint counternarcotics investigation. The Supreme People's Procuratorate published "six typical cases," involving actions ranging from postal fraud to medical professionals selling illicit drugs on the side, and clarified the legal application standards to handle such cases. The prosecutor said in a statement that the release was meant to show its "determination and attitude to intensify efforts to crack down on related crimes, while hoping that this batch of typical cases will serve as a warning to the society." The United States and China held high-level counternarcotics talks on Thursday following a breakthrough in bilateral cooperation this week in which both sides went after a major drug-linked money laundering operation. The United States, where fentanyl abuse has been a major cause of death, has pushed China for deeper law enforcement cooperation, including tackling illicit finance and further controls on the chemicals that can be used to make fentanyl. These chemicals are often shipped to the U.S. and other destinations from China using mail packages that have unverifiable addresses or are mislabeled, experts say. The U.S. Postal Service has for years struggled with the problem. One of the examples highlighted in the prosecutor's note on Friday involved a case of a Chinese buyer, surnamed Yan, purchasing date-rape drug triazolam from overseas and then selling it in China by mail using mislabeled packaging. As a result, "the procuratorate issued a procuratorial suggestion to the postal administration department...urging the regulatory department to fulfill its main responsibility and perform its duties conscientiously." The postal administration then "urged the company to make timely rectifications," the prosecutor said. The note said "the procuratorate invited nearly 100 couriers and college students to attend the trial, focusing on the new characteristics and new forms of new drug cases to carry out anti-drug law publicity." Postal fraud was briefly mentioned in the opening remarks by Rahul Gupta, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, who on Thursday held talks in Beijing with China's minister of public security, Wang Xiaohong. Gupta said it was among the "areas where we're both being negatively impacted," listing it alongside illicit finance, "illegal drug trafficking and use, and the emergence of new and more dangerous drugs."

CAIRO — Israeli forces pounded Rafah and other areas across the GazaStrip and engaged in close-quarter combat with fighters led by Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, residents and Israel's military said. Residents said the Israelis appeared to by trying to complete their capture of Rafah, the city on the enclave's southern edge that has been the focus of an Israeli assault since early May. Tanks were forcing their way into the western and northern parts of the city, having already  captured the east, south and center. Israeli forces fired from planes, tanks and ships off the coast, forcing a new wave of displacement from the city, which had been sheltering more than a million displaced people, most of whom have been forced to flee again. Palestinian health officials said at least 12 Palestinians had been killed in separate Israeli military strikes Friday. The Israeli military said on Friday its forces were conducting "precise, intelligence-based" actions in the Rafah area, where troops were involved in close-quarter combat and had located tunnels used by militants. It also reported actions elsewhere in the enclave. Some Rafah residents said the pace of the Israeli raid has been accelerated in the past two days. They said sounds of explosions and gunfire indicating fierce fighting have been almost non-stop. "Last night was one of the worst nights in western Rafah, drones, planes, tanks, and naval boats bombarded the area. We feel the occupation is trying to complete the control of the city," said Hatem, 45, reached by text message. "They are taking heavy strikes from the resistance fighters, which may be slowing them down." More than eight months into the war in Gaza, Israel's advance is now focused on the two last areas its forces had yet to storm: Rafah on Gaza's southern edge and the area surrounding Deir al-Balah in the center. "The entire city of Rafah is an area of Israeli military operations," Ahmed Al-Sofi, the mayor of Rafah, said in a statement carried by Hamas media on Friday. "The city lives through a humanitarian catastrophe and people are dying inside their tents because of Israeli bombardment," he added. Sofi said there was no medical facility functioning in the city, and that remaining residents and displaced families lacked the minimum of their daily needs of food and water. Palestinian and UN figures show that fewer than 100,000 people may have remained in the far western side of the city, which had been sheltering more than half of Gaza's 2.3 million people before the Israeli assault began in early May. The military accused Hamas of using Palestinian civilians as human shields, an allegation Hamas denies. "The soldiers located inside a civilian residence large quantities of weapons hidden in wardrobes, including grenades, explosives, a launcher and anti-tank missiles, ammunition, and arms," the military said in a statement late Thursday. Hamas' armed wing said Thursday its fighters had hit two Israeli tanks with anti-tank rockets in the Shaboura camp in Rafah, and killed soldiers who tried to flee through the alleys. There was no Israeli immediate comment on the Hamas claim. In nearby Khan Younis, an Israeli air strike on Friday killed three people, including a father and son, medics said. In parallel, Israeli forces continued a new push back into some Gaza City suburbs in the north of the enclave, where they fought with Hamas-led militants. Residents said the army forces had destroyed many homes in the heart of Gaza City on Thursday. Later Friday, an Israeli air strike on a facility of the Gaza City municipality killed five people, including four municipality workers, the territory's Civil Emergency Service said. It added that rescue teams were searching the rubble for more missing victims. Israel's ground and air campaign was triggered when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on October 7, killing around 1,200 people and seizing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. The offensive has left Gaza in ruins, killed more than 37,400 people, according to Palestinian health authorities, and left nearly the entire population homeless and destitute.

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SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea summoned the Russian ambassador to protest the country’s new defense pact with North Korea on Friday, as border tensions continued to rise with vague threats and brief, seemingly accidental incursions by North Korean troops. Earlier Friday, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un issued a vague threat of retaliation after South Korean activists flew balloons carrying anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets across the border, and South Korea’s military said it had fired warning shots the previous day to repel North Korean soldiers who briefly crossed the rivals’ land border for the third time this month. That came two days after Moscow and Pyongyang reached a pact vowing mutual defense assistance if either is attacked, and a day after Seoul responded by saying it would consider providing arms to Ukraine to fight Russia’s invasion. South Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Hong Kyun summoned Russian Ambassador Georgy Zinoviev to protest the deal between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un and called for Moscow to immediately halt its alleged military cooperation with Pyongyang. Kim, the South Korean diplomat, stressed that any cooperation that directly or indirectly helps the North build up its military capabilities would violate U.N. Security Council resolutions and pose a threat to the South’s security, and warned of consequences for Seoul’s relations with Moscow. Zinoviev replied that he would convey Seoul’s concerns to his superiors in Moscow, the ministry said. Leafletting campaigns by South Korean civilian activists in recent weeks have prompted a resumption of Cold War-style psychological warfare along the inter-Korean border. The South Korean civilian activists, led by North Korean defector Park Sang-hak, said it sent 20 balloons carrying 300,000 propaganda leaflets, 5,000 USB sticks with South Korean pop songs and TV dramas, and 3,000 U.S. dollar bills from the South Korean border town of Paju on Thursday night. Pyongyang resents such material and fears it could demoralize front-line troops and residents and eventually weaken Kim Jong Un’s grip on power, analysts say. In a statement carried by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency, Kim Yo Jong, one of her brother’s top foreign policy officials, called the activists "defector scum" and issued what appeared to be a threat of retaliation. "When you do something you were clearly warned not to do, it’s only natural that you will find yourself dealing with something you didn’t have to," she said, without specifying what the North would do. After previous leafletting by South Korean activists, North Korea launched more than 1,000 balloons that dropped tons of trash in South Korea, smashing roof tiles and windows and causing other property damage. Kim Yo Jong previously hinted that balloons could become the North’s standard response to leafletting, saying that the North would respond by "scattering dozens of times more rubbish than is being scattered on us." In response, South Korea resumed anti-North Korea propaganda broadcasts with military loudspeakers installed at the border for the first time in years, to which Kim Yo Jong, in another state media statement, warned that Seoul was "creating a prelude to a very dangerous situation." Tensions between the Koreas are at their highest in years as Kim Jong Un accelerates his nuclear weapons and missile development and attempts to strengthen his regional footing by aligning with Russian President Vladimir Putin in a standoff against the U.S.-led West. South Korea, a growing arms exporter with a well-equipped military backed by the United States, says it is considering upping support for Ukraine in response. Seoul has already provided humanitarian aid and other support while joining U.S.-led economic sanctions against Moscow. But it has not directly provided arms, citing a long-standing policy of not supplying weapons to countries actively engaged in conflict. Putin told reporters in Hanoi, Vietnam, on Thursday that supplying weapons to Ukraine would be "a very big mistake," and said South Korea "shouldn’t worry" about the agreement if it isn’t planning aggression against Pyongyang. South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said Minister Cho Tae-yul on Friday held separate phone calls with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa to discuss the new pact. The diplomats agreed that the agreement poses a serious threat to peace and stability in the region and vowed to strengthen trilateral coordination to deal with the challenges posed by the alignment between Moscow and Pyongyang, Cho’s ministry said in a statement. North Korea is extremely sensitive to criticism of Kim’s authoritarian rule and efforts to reach its people with foreign news and other media. In 2015, when South Korea restarted loudspeaker broadcasts for the first time in 11 years, North Korea fired artillery rounds across the border, prompting South Korea to return fire, according to South Korean officials. No casualties were reported. South Korea’s military said there are signs that North Korea was installing its own speakers at the border, although they weren’t yet working. In the latest border incident, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said several North Korean soldiers engaged in unspecified construction work briefly crossed the military demarcation line that divides the two countries at around 11 a.m. Thursday. The South Korean military broadcast a warning and fired warning shots, after which the North Korean soldiers retreated. The joint chiefs didn’t immediately release more details, including why it was releasing the information a day late. South Korea’s military says believes recent border intrusions were not intentional, as the North Korean soldiers have not returned fire and retreated after the warning shots. The South’s military has observed the North deploying large numbers of soldiers in frontline areas to build suspected anti-tank barriers, reinforce roads and plant mines in an apparent attempt to fortify their side of the border. Seoul believes the efforts are likely aimed at preventing North Korean civilians and soldiers from escaping to the South.  

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Beirut — Israel and Hezbollah traded fresh cross-border fire, as fears of a regional conflict grew after Israel revealed it had approved plans for a Lebanon offensive and the Iran-backed militants vowed to blanket their foe in rockets. Hezbollah said it fired dozens of rockets into northern Israel on Thursday in retaliation for a deadly air strike in south Lebanon that Israel said killed one of the group's operatives. Hezbollah also claimed several other attacks on Israeli troops and positions over the course of the day. The Israeli military said its jets had struck two weapons storage facilities and several other sites belonging to the group, and that it had fired artillery "to remove threats in multiple areas in southern Lebanon." Just before midnight, the army said it had "successfully intercepted a suspicious aerial target that crossed from Lebanon." And early Friday, Lebanese media reported fresh Israeli strikes in the country's south. Experts are divided on the prospect of a wider war, almost nine months into Israel's campaign to eradicate Hezbollah's ally Hamas, the Palestinian militant group in the Gaza Strip. Hezbollah and Israeli forces have exchanged near-daily fire since Hamas' October 7 attack on southern Israel triggered the Gaza war, and the bellicose talk has escalated along with the strikes. Israel's main military backer the United States has sought to discourage any expansion of hostilities along the border. In a meeting with visiting Israeli officials in Washington, Secretary of State Antony Blinken underscored "the importance of avoiding further escalation in Lebanon and reaching a diplomatic resolution that allows Israeli and Lebanese families to return to their homes," according to a statement. In a televised address on Wednesday, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah had warned "no place" in Israel would "be spared our rockets" if a wider war began. He also threatened nearby Cyprus if it opened its airports or bases to Israel "to target Lebanon." European Union member Cyprus houses two British bases, including an airbase, but they are in sovereign British territory and not controlled by the Cypriot government. On Thursday, Cyprus government spokesperson Konstantinos Letymbiotis dismissed as "totally groundless" any suggestion of possible involvement in a conflict related to Lebanon. Warplanes from the British airbase in Cyprus have, along with U.S. forces, attacked Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels who have for months been targeting Red Sea shipping. On Thursday the U.S. military said it had destroyed several Houthi drones, a day after its forces struck two rebel sites in Yemen. 'Urgent' de-escalation The October Hamas attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,194 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures. The militants also seized hostages, 116 of whom remain in Gaza although the army says 41 are dead. Israel's retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed at least 37,431 people, also mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory. The latest toll on Thursday included at least 35 deaths over the previous day, the ministry said. The Houthis and Hezbollah both say they are acting in response to Israel's actions in Gaza. On Tuesday, Israel's military announced that "operational plans for an offensive in Lebanon were approved and validated." The same day, Hezbollah published a video showing drone footage it purportedly recorded over northern Israel, including parts of Haifa's city and port. U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein on a trip to the region called for "urgent" de-escalation, while the UN special coordinator for Lebanon Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert said there was "no inevitability to conflict" as she visited UN peacekeepers in the country's south. The cross-border violence has killed at least 479 people in Lebanon, most of them fighters but also 93 civilians, according to an AFP tally. Israeli authorities say at least 15 soldiers and 11 civilians have been killed in the country's north. Weary residents of Beirut on Thursday downplayed the chances of war in Lebanon, which political deadlock has left essentially leaderless while a five-year economic meltdown continues. In Israel, some citizens called for action against Hezbollah, and Noam Galili, 29, said: "I know what it is like to live close to Lebanon, but it never felt as dangerous as it does now." The violence has already displaced tens of thousands of people, mostly in Lebanon, but also in northern Israel. Pressures In southern Gaza, a United Nations mission found hundreds of thousands of displaced people "suffer from poor access to shelter, health, food, water and sanitation," a U.N. report said late Wednesday. In central Gaza, residents said they had turned to cooking oil to power their cars. U.S. President Joe Biden has called for the implementation of a cease-fire plan he outlined last month. Hochstein and Blinken say a deal to curb fighting in Gaza would by extension help resolve the Hezbollah-Israel violence. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's far-right coalition partners strongly oppose a Gaza cease-fire. Netanyahu is also facing regular street protests demanding a deal to free the hostages and accusing him of prolonging the war. "We will not leave the Gaza Strip until all of the hostages return," Netanyahu said Thursday to relatives of hostages killed in the territory. "We do not have the option of giving up." In a separate statement, he called the war a battle for Israel's existence. But the viability of the war's stated goal of eradicating Hamas has been questioned in some corners. Israeli military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told Israel's Channel 13 on Wednesday: "To say that we are going to make Hamas disappear is to throw sand in people's eyes. If we don't provide an alternative, in the end, we will have Hamas." Blinken last month said Washington had not seen an Israeli post-war plan, adding "the trajectory Israel is on" would still leave thousands of Hamas fighters. Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer said Thursday that Hamas's "final stronghold" in Rafah on the border with Egypt was systematically being taken apart. "And we will win," he told a press briefing.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados — Fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah took three wickets for just seven runs as India beat Afghanistan by 47 runs in their Super Eight match at the Twenty20 World Cup on Thursday. Later, Pat Cummins took the first hat-trick of the tournament as Australia beat Bangladesh by 28 runs under the Duckworth-Lewis system due to rain delays. Bumrah's four-over spell was aided by Arshdeep Singh, who finished with 3-36. Spinners Kuldeep Yadav (2-32) and Axar Patel (1-15) shared three wickets as Afghanistan was bowled out for 134 runs. Suryakumar Yadav scored 53 off 28 balls — his fifth T20 World Cup half-century — as India reached 181-8 in 20 overs after deciding to bat. Yadav, named player of the match, hit three sixes and five fours, while Hardik Pandya scored 32 off 24 balls, including two sixes. "I am clear in my mind how I want to bat," Yadav said. "There's a lot of hard work, process and routine involved in it. You just need to know your game plan and just play accordingly. In the end, we were happy with 180." On a slow-paced Barbados wicket, India had made a sluggish start. Skipper Rohit Sharma was out caught for eight, while star batter Virat Kohli only managed run-a-ball 24. Rishabh Pant, batting at three, provided some acceleration — he scored 20 off 11 balls with four fours. Afghanistan skipper and wrist spinner Rashid Khan did damage to India's top order, dismissing both Kohli and Pant, the latter out lbw. It was the first time Khan picked up wickets against India in T20s. India was down to 62-3 in 8.3 overs, when Yadav played a rescuing hand. He added 28 of 14 balls with Shivam Dube (10) and then the match-turning 60 runs with Pandya. Yadav's stand with Pandya came off only 37 balls as India scored 102 runs off the final 10 overs. Rashid Khan finished with 3-26 in four overs. Afghanistan's chase got off to a poor start against Bumrah — he sent back both openers Rahmanullah Gurbaz (11) and Haratullah Zazai (2) cheaply. In between, Axar Patel struck in the fourth over as Ibrahim Zadran was out for eight, and Afghanistan slipped to 23-3 in 4.1 overs. Ravindra Jadeja had 1-20 in three overs. Afghanistan lost its last five wickets for 32 runs across 28 deliveries as India crossed the finish line with ease. Australia beats BangladeshAt North Sound, Antigua, Cummins claimed the first hat-trick of the tournament as Australia beat Bangladesh by 28 runs after rain delays forced the result to go to the the Duckworth-Lewis system. Cummins dismissed Mahmdullah and Mahedi Hasan with the last two balls of the 18th over and Towhid Hridoy with the first ball of the 20th as Australia restricted Bangladesh to 140-8. Australia was 100-2 when heavy rain set in after 11.2 overs, well ahead of the winning score it needed at the time. The umpires finally called off the match around 12.30 a.m. local time. Cummins was the seventh player to complete a hat-trick — three wickets with three balls — at a Twenty20 World Cup and the second Australian after Brett Lee who achieved the feat, also against Bangladesh, in 2007. "I had no idea," Cummins said. "At the end of the over I saw it come up on the screen so I thought I'll make sure I remember but I totally forgot about it. I had a few (hat-tricks) in juniors but never for Australia." David Warner and Travis Head then shared a 65-run opening partnership in 6.5 overs to set up Australia's run chase. Head was out for 31 but Warner went on to make a half century from 34 balls. He finished 53 not out. Mitchell Starc bowled Tanzid Hasan with the third ball of the match after Australia sent Bangladesh in and Bangladesh struggled to create momentum, hampered by regular wicket falls. Captain Najmul Hossain Shanto made 41 from 36 ball and shared a half century partnership from 42 balls with Litton Das (16). But after the second-wicket pair were separated with the total was 58-2 in the ninth over, Bangladesh struggled to create partnerships. Adam Zampa dismissed both Litton Das and Shanto, bowling Das with a ball that snuck under the bat and cannoned off the back leg onto the stumps. Shanto knelt to sweep a ball which skidded on a hit on the knee roll in front of middle. Zampa also took a catch from Glenn Maxwell's bowling to remove Rishad Hossain who had been promoted in the order to hurry the scoring but managed only two runs from four balls.

TEL AVIV, Israel — A company drilling for natural gas off the coast of northern Israel discovered a 3,300-year-old ship and its cargo, one of the oldest known examples of a ship sailing far from land, the Israel Antiquities Authority said Thursday. The discovery of the late Bronze Age ship so far out at sea indicates that the navigation abilities of ancient seafarers were more advanced than previously thought because they could travel without a line of sight to land, the IAA said. The great depth at which the ship was found means it has been left undisturbed by waves, currents or fishermen over the millennia, offering greater potential for research, it said. "The discovery of this boat now changes our entire understanding of ancient mariner abilities. It is the very first to be found at such a great distance with no line of sight to any landmass," said Jacob Sharvit, head of the IAA marine unit, adding that two similar ships from the same era had been discovered previously, but only close to shore. Sharvit said the assumption by researchers until now has been that trade during that era was conducted by boats sailing close to the shore, keeping an eye on land while moving from port to port. He said the newly discovered boat's sailors probably used the sun and the stars to find their way. The wooden ship sank about 90 kilometers off Israel's Mediterranean coast and was discovered at a depth of 1,800 meters by Energean, a natural gas company which operates a number of deep-sea natural gas fields in Israel's territorial waters. In its work, Energean said it uses a submersible robot to scour the sea floor. About a year ago, it came across the 12- to 14-meter-long ship buried under the muddy bottom, nestled under hundreds of jugs that were thousands of years old. The boat and its cargo were fully intact, the IAA said, adding that the vessel appeared to have sunk either in a storm or after coming under attack by pirates. The ship for now is not being retrieved. Energean worked with the IAA to retrieve two of the jugs, which were likely used for carrying oil, wine or fruit, and bring them to the surface for research. The IAA identified the jugs as Canaanite, a people who resided in the lands abutting the eastern Mediterranean.

BEIJING — Nine people have died and six are missing after downpours caused historic flooding in rural parts of Guangdong province in southern China, while authorities warned Friday of more flooding ahead in other parts of the country. Four people died and four are missing, in Meixian district in Guangdong's Meizhou city, state broadcaster CCTV reported Thursday night. Another five are dead in Jiaoling county, which is also in Meizhou. The heaviest rains were from Sunday into Tuesday, toppling trees and collapsing homes. A road leading to Meixian district completely collapsed during the heavy rains. The Songyuan river, which winds through Meizhou, experienced its biggest recorded flood, according to CCTV. The estimated direct economic loss is 3.65 billion yuan ($502 million) in Jiaoling county, while in Meixian district, the loss is 1.06 billion yuan ($146 million). Other parts of the country also face torrential rains and extreme weather in the next 24 hours, with the National Meteorological Center issuing a warning for several provinces in the south and a few individual places in the north. Henan and Anhui provinces in central China, as well as Jiangsu province on the coast and the southern province of Guizhou, all are expecting hail and strong thunderstorms, according to the forecast. Rainfall could be as high as 5-8 centimeters in one day in Henan, Anhui and Hubei provinces, the National Meteorological Center said. Last week, southern Fujian and Guangxi provinces experienced landslides and flooding amid heavy rain. One student died in Guangxi after falling into a river swollen from the downpour.

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South Korea says it will consider sending arms to Ukraine after Russia and North Korea rattled the region and beyond by signing a pact to come to each other’s defense in the event of war. We talk to Gregg A. Brazinsky works on U.S.-East Asian relations and East Asian international history at George Washington University. Donald Sutherland, one of Canada's most versatile and gifted actors, who charmed and enthralled audiences in films such as "M*A*S*H," "Klute," "Ordinary People" and the "Hunger Games,” has died at the age of 88.

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Washington — U.S. President Joe Biden's administration on Thursday banned Russia-based cybersecurity firm Kaspersky from providing its popular antivirus products in the United States over national security concerns, the U.S. Commerce Department said. "Kaspersky will generally no longer be able to, among other activities, sell its software within the United States or provide updates to software already in use," the agency said in a statement. The announcement came after a lengthy investigation found Kaspersky's "continued operations in the United States presented a national security risk due to the Russian Government's offensive cyber capabilities and capacity to influence or direct Kaspersky's operations," it said. U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said, "Russia has shown time and again they have the capability and intent to exploit Russian companies, like Kaspersky Lab, to collect and weaponize sensitive U.S. information." Kaspersky, in a statement to AFP, said the Commerce Department "made its decision based on the present geopolitical climate and theoretical concerns," and vowed to "pursue all legally available options to preserve its current operations and relationships." "Kaspersky does not engage in activities which threaten U.S. national security and, in fact, has made significant contributions with its reporting and protection from a variety of threat actors that targeted U.S. interests and allies," the company said. The move is the first such action taken since an executive order issued under Donald Trump's presidency gave the Commerce Department the power to investigate whether certain companies pose a national security risk. Raimondo said the Commerce Department's actions demonstrated to America's adversaries that it would not hesitate to act when "their technology poses a risk to the United States and its citizens." While Kaspersky is headquartered in Moscow, it has offices in 31 countries around the world, servicing more than 400 million users and 270,000 corporate clients in more than 200 countries, the Commerce Department said. As well as banning the sale of Kaspersky's antivirus software, the Commerce Department also added three entities linked to the firm to a list of companies deemed to be a national security concern, "for their cooperation with Russian military and intelligence authorities in support of the Russian government's cyber intelligence objectives." The Commerce Department said it "strongly encouraged" users to switch to new vendors, although its decision does not ban them from using the software should they choose to do so. Kaspersky is allowed to continue certain operations in the United States, including providing antivirus updates, until September 29, "in order to minimize disruption to US consumers and businesses and to give them time to find suitable alternatives," it added.  

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