Raqqa battle: 'Staggering' civilian toll in strikes on IS

UN war crimes investigators say US-led coalition air strikes on Islamic State militants in the Syrian city of Raqqa are causing "staggering loss of life".
Hundreds of civilians are reported to have been killed since March, as coalition warplanes support an offensive by a Kurdish-led alliance.
In the past week, Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters have pushed into the west, east and north of Raqqa.
The battle for the city has also led to 160,000 civilians fleeing their homes.
The coalition has said the capture of Raqqa will deliver a "decisive blow" to the caliphate proclaimed by IS in June 2014, months after it took control or the city.
Up to 4,000 militants are believed to be holed up inside Raqqa, including foreign fighters and various senior figures.
It is unclear how many civilians are trapped there with them, but UN officials estimated that there are between 50,000 and 100,000.


In an address to the UN Human Rights Council on Wednesday, the chairman of the independent commission of inquiry for Syria noted that IS had been losing territory at a rapid pace in the north and centre of the country over the past few months.
If successful, Paolo Pinheiro said, the SDF offensive on Raqqa "could liberate the city's civilian population from the group's oppressive clutches, including Yazidi women and girls, whom the group has kept sexually enslaved for almost three years as part of an ongoing and unaddressed genocide".
But he added that the offensive must not be "undertaken at the expense of civilians who unwillingly find themselves living in areas where [IS] is present".
"We note in particular that the intensification of air strikes, which have paved the ground for an SDF advance in Raqqa, has resulted not only in staggering loss of civilian life, but has also led to 160,000 civilians fleeing their homes and becoming internally displaced."


The UK-based monitoring group Airwars estimates that more than 600 civilians were killed in more than 150 coalition or SDF attacks between March and May.
Air and artillery strikes killed dozens more in the first eight days of June, it says.
The UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs warned on Thursday that the assault was intensifying an "already desperate" situation in Raqqa.
Air strikes, shelling and clashes on the ground were killing and injuring civilians, and damaging key infrastructure, it said. There were also reports of increased shortages of essential commodities such as food, medicine and fuel, it added.


Separately, Human Rights Watch warned that the coalition's use of artillery-delivered white phosphorus in Raqqa and in the last remaining IS-held parts of the northern Iraqi city of Mosul was endangering civilians.
White phosphorus can be used for several purposes on the battlefield - as a smoke screen, for signalling and marking, and as an incendiary weapon.
However, international law prohibits its use in civilian areas because of its indiscriminate effects. On contact, it can burn people, thermally and chemically, down to the bone.
"No matter how white phosphorus is used, it poses a high risk of horrific and long-lasting harm," warned Steve Goose, arms director at Human Rights Watch. 

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Wu Xiaohui: China 'detains' Anbang Insurance chairman

The head of Chinese insurance and financial giant Anbang is reported to have been detained by the authorities.
The company, one of the country's richest and most powerful, said Wu Xiaohui was stepping aside as chairman.
It gave few details but said he was no longer able to fulfil his duties for "personal reasons".
Chinese business magazine Caijing had reported that Mr Wu was detained by authorities last week, but later deleted its article.
An official source told the BBC that Mr Wu had been taken away from the Anbang Office Building on 8 June by police who arrived in two cars.
It is not clear where Mr Wu is now.
If Mr Wu's detention is confirmed by the authorities, he would be the highest-profile target of the government's attempt to re-establish state control of the financial industry, and target corruption.
Anbang is known for a number of high profile international acquisitions, like the purchase of New York's Waldorf Astoria hotel in 2015.

Anbang

Chinese insurance giant

$242bn
Value of assets managed
  • $60m Starting capital in 2004
  • 9.12bn Current capital
  • 1.95bn Acquisition of New York's Waldorf Astoria Hotel
The Economist
Reuters
The company, which manages some 1.65tn yuan (£190bn; $242bn) worth of assets, said in a statement that the chairman's duties would be managed by other senior executives.
Anbang did not comment on the report by Caijing that he had been detained.
Earlier, Anbang had denied a report by the Financial Times that Mr Wu had been stopped from travelling abroad.

Is Anbang what it seems? Analysis by Celia Hatton, BBC News

In the past few years, high-level officials have often been detained for corruption in China. Found guilty of taking bribes, they're handed lengthy prison sentences and ushered out of public view.
The Wu Xiaohui case is very different.
Mr Wu masterminded the explosive rise of his company in just over a decade by selling relatively risky investment products - not traditional insurance policies. Still smarting about the collapse of Shanghai's stock market in 2012, Chinese regulators had warned about Anbang's "wealth management products".
Another respected magazine, Caixin, published unusually frank exposes on Anbang in April. Like the New York Times before it, Caixin probed Anbang's murky ownership structure and whether it had enough money in the bank to carry out large overseas acquisitions.
The articles addressed some of the greatest mysteries swirling around China: who really owns Anbang and who made way for its almost impossible rise from a tiny car insurance company to a global behemoth?
If Wu Xiaohui and Anbang aren't what they seem, the entire Chinese economy, including many ordinary people with Anbang products, could be in for a fall.
Anbang had recently been in talks with a real estate company part-owned by Donald Trump's son-in-law and senior White House adviser, Jared Kushner.
The two sides were reportedly negotiating a deal to redevelop one of Kushner Companies' Manhattan buildings. 


The possible deal had raised media speculation over a potential conflict of interest and was called off by "mutual agreement" without any reasons given.
Wu Xiaohui had long been considered one of the most politically connected men in China, having married the granddaughter of former leader Deng Xiaoping.
His company has in recent years been among the biggest players of Chinese firms pursuing high-profile overseas acquisitions and investments.
In 2016, Anbang paid private equity firm Blackstone $6.5bn for the ownership of Strategic Hotels & Resorts, a portfolio of upmarket hotels and resorts.
That purchase added 16 luxury properties across the US to Anbang's holdings, including the Ritz-Carlton Half Moon Bay, and the Four Seasons hotels in Silicon Valley and Washington.

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Roxane Gay: Mamamia website 'humiliates' feminist author

It was meant to be an interview to promote a book.
But Mia Freedman's podcast chat with feminist author Roxane Gay has been overshadowed by the words used to trail it online.
Ms Freedman wrote about wondering whether Ms Gay would "fit in to the office lift" and searching for a chair "sturdy enough to hold her weight".
Ms Gay called the words "cruel and humiliating". Ms Freedman apologised, saying she was "beyond mortified".
Ms Gay's book Hunger recounts her life as a "woman of size", as she puts it - she is 6ft 3in (1.91m) tall and, at her heaviest, weighed 41 stone (262kg).
Subtitled A Memoir of (My) Body, it tells how the author began overeating after suffering serious sexual violence as a child, and how her size makes the world more difficult to navigate - from deciding whether to book one or two airplane seats to dealing with the reactions of other people.
"Fat bodies tend to be public property", she writes, saying strangers are quick to offer her advice on losing weight.
"People are quick to offer statistics and information about the dangers of obesity, as if you are not only fat but incredibly stupid, unaware, and delusional about your body and a world that is vigorously inhospitable to that body."
While promoting the book in Australia, Ms Gay spoke to Ms Freedman for her women's website Mamamia.
"A lot of planning has to go in to a visit from best-selling author, college professor and writer Roxane Gray," the podcast description started.
"Will she fit into the office lift? How many steps will she have to take to get to the interview?"
It continued: "None of this is disclosed with a mean spirit, it's part of what Roxane writes about in her new book Hunger."
Image copyright @courtney_ro
 
 
But in response, Ms Gay tweeted that she was "appalled", that the words were "cruel and humiliating", the situation was "disgusting and shameful".
"I can walk a f***ing mile," she wrote.
Later, she wrote about her reaction to media attention being wrested away from the launch of the book.



The podcast description was changed online and Ms Freedman published a long statement apologising and saying the experience had been an "extraordinarily searing lesson".
"This is not my story to tell and I should not have included it in the intro to the podcast or the podcast description. It was disrespectful and it upset her and for that I am deeply, deeply sorry. Unconditionally sorry.
"I am beyond mortified, horrified and ashamed that I could have, in any way contributed to Roxane Gay feeling anything other than fierce, brilliant and beautiful."
The fallout has been covered in several media outlets around the world, and the Sydney Morning Herald published a piece saying it might harm Mamamia's plans to expand its readership in the US.

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Steve Scalise: Republican House whip shot and wounded

A top congressman was among five people wounded as a gunman sprayed bullets at Republican lawmakers during baseball practice in a Washington DC suburb.
House of Representatives Majority Whip Steve Scalise was expected to survive after the early morning attack at a park in Alexandria, Virginia.
Two police officers suffered non-life threatening bullet wounds as they fired back at the attacker.
Police said the gunman was among five people taken to hospital.
Alexandria police tweeted: "Suspect is in custody and not a threat."
The lawmakers were practising for the annual congressional ballgame scheduled to be played on Thursday at Nationals Park, home of Major League Baseball team the Washington Nationals.
Alexandria police said the FBI was taking over the investigation into the shooting, which began shortly after 07:00 (11:00 GMT) on Wednesday morning at Eugene Simpson Stadium Park.

'Killing field'

President Donald Trump said in a statement: "We are deeply saddened by this tragedy.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with the members of Congress, their staffs, Capitol Police, first responders, and all others affected."

Who is Steve Scalise?

  • House Majority Whip, the number three Republican in Congress, responsible for vote gathering
  • Elected to Congress in 2008 having previously served in the Louisiana state legislature
  • He apologised for speaking to a white supremacist group during a campaign event in 2002
  • Former leader of the ultraconservative Republican Study Group, which clashed frequently with party leadership
  • He married his wife Jennifer in 2005 and they have two young children. They live in Jefferson, Louisiana
Mr Scalise was shot in the hip was said to be in a stable condition and "good spirits" as he was taken for surgery.
Senator Mike Lee, a Utah Republican, said someone had used a belt as a tourniquet on Mr Scalise.
Texas congressman Roger Williams' office said he himself was not shot, though one of his staff, legislative correspondent Zack Barth, was wounded in the attack.


Kentucky Senator Rand Paul told Fox News: "I do believe without the Capitol Hill police it would have been a massacre.
"We had no defence at all. The field was basically a killing field."
He said they were lucky that Mr Scalise was present because he has a security detail owing to his congressional seniority.
Mo Brooks, an Alabama Republican, told CNN he was on third base during the baseball game when he saw Mr Scalise, who was on second base, shot.


He said Mr Scalise had a bullet hole in his leg, but was saying: "I'm OK, I'm OK."
Mr Brooks said everyone on the field scattered as 50 to 100 shots were fired.
He said a gunfight had ensued between the shooter and the congressmen's police security detail, who were armed with pistols.


Mr Brooks said the gunman was armed with a rifle and was "blasting away" from behind the dugout, using it for protection.
The congressman, who said he took refuge behind a batting cage, described the attacker as a middle-aged white male, "a little on the chubby side".
Mr Brooks said congressmen Chuck Fleischmann, of Tennessee, Ron DeSantis, of Florida, and Jeff Duncan, of South Carolina, were among 15-25 lawmakers at the game.
Asked by a CNN host if the attack was deliberate, Mr Brooks replied: "Well, it sure as heck wasn't an accident!


"He was going after elected officials, congressmen."
Mr Brooks continued: "The only weapon I had was a baseball bat and that's not the kind of fight you want to engage in."
Ohio congressman Brad Wenstrup, who served in Iraq as a combat surgeon from 2005-06, provided medical care at the scene.
He told CNN the shooter eventually resorted to a pistol, having apparently used up all his rifle ammunition.

'A lot of ammo'

Arizona Senator Jeff Flake told reporters he was at bat during the shooting and the victims were "sitting ducks".

He said the attack had lasted for at least 10 minutes, adding: "He had a lot of ammo."
Mr Flake added: "There are two of his [Mr Scalise's security] detail were shot, one African-American gentleman shot in the leg and I believe he's the one that brought the shooter down.
"He ran around for quite a while with a leg wound, returning fire."
Alexandria Police Chief Michael Brown said his officers had responded and engaged the shooter within three minutes.

The last member of Congress to be targeted by a gunman was Democrat Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in the head as she met constituents in Tucson, Arizona, in January 2011. She survived, but six others died in that incident.
Ms Giffords‏ tweeted on Wednesday: "My heart is with my former colleagues, their families & staff, and the US Capitol Police- public servants and heroes today and every day."


The top Republican in the House of Representatives, Speaker Paul Ryan, said "the hearts of the whole House" were with the victims.
One eyewitness was outraged that the gunman should have targeted a game known as the nation's pastime.
Noah Nathan told NBC News: "Baseball is America's game! You don't mess with baseball."



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London fire: Six killed as Grenfell Tower engulfed

At least six people have died after a huge fire raged through the night at a west London 24-storey tower block, and police expect that number to rise.
Eyewitnesses described people trapped in the burning Grenfell Tower, in north Kensington, screaming for help and yelling for their children to be saved.
Firefighters, who rescued many people, were called at 00:54 BST and are still trying to put out the fire.
Police say there may still be people in the building who are unaccounted for.
During the night, eyewitnesses said they saw lights - thought to be mobile phones or torches - flashing at the top of the block of flats, and trapped residents coming to their windows - some holding children.
It is understood that "several hundred" people would have been in the block when the fire broke out shortly after midnight, most of them sleeping.
Commander Stuart Cundy, of the Metropolitan Police, said the recovery operation would be "complex and lengthy", and the number of fatalities was expected to rise.
He declined to give any details of the number of people who may be missing.
He said it was likely to be some time before police could identify the victims, adding that it was too early to speculate on the cause of the fire.
An emergency number - 0800 0961 233 - has been set up for anyone concerned about friends or family.
More than 70 people have received treatment in hospital. At least 20 are known to be in a critical condition.
At 13:00 BST, Fire Commissioner Dany Cotton said firefighters expected to be on the scene for at least another 24 hours and she would not speculate about the cause of the blaze.
She said there were concerns that people were still inside the tower and she urged all residents to make sure they had reported themselves to police so that the authorities know they are safe.
Prime Minister Theresa May is "deeply saddened by the tragic loss of life", said Downing Street.
Meanwhile, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is to demand a government statement in Parliament on Thursday on the tragedy, the BBC understands.
Later, police and fire minister Nick Hurd will chair a cross-party meeting to look at how the government can assist the emergency services and local authorities.
Paul Munakr, who lives on the seventh floor, managed to escape.
"As I was going down the stairs, there were firefighters, truly amazing firefighters that were actually going upstairs, to the fire, trying to get as many people out the building as possible," he told the BBC.
He said he was alerted to the fire not by fire alarms but by people on the street below, shouting "don't jump, don't jump".
Eyewitness Jody Martin said: "I watched one person falling out, I watched another woman holding her baby out the window... hearing screams.
"I was yelling at everyone to get down and they were saying 'We can't leave our apartments, the smoke is too bad on the corridors.'"
Michael Paramasivan, who lives on the seventh floor with his girlfriend and young daughter, said he ignored official advice to stay in your home.
"If we had stayed in that flat, we would've perished. My gut instinct told me just to get the girls out. I wrapped the little one up because of the smoke and I just got them out."
Another resident, Zoe, who lives on the fourth floor, said she was woken by a neighbour banging on her door.
"The whole landing was thick with smoke. The smoke alarms weren't going off but the way it spread so quickly from the fourth floor, all the way up to the 23rd floor was scary."

At the scene

 

By Lucy Manning, BBC News
They have lost their homes and for some, tragically their relatives.
At times there is the sound of sobbing as the word goes round that someone is missing, someone is feared dead.
I've spent the day inside the community centre where survivors have gathered.
Downstairs in the hall families sit at tables and wait for news.
One family told me they hadn't heard from their brother, sister and three children - Mirna, Fatima and Zainnb. Other relatives were out searching hospitals. There was still no news.
Outside the centre, Sawsan was with a group of women. For one it was too much, she was on the floor crying. Sawsan hasn't heard from her mum, sister, brother-in-law and nieces. She spoke to them when the fire started but nothing since.
Inside the centre, families are being helped with food, housing and medical treatment. It's busy and everyone is helping. Just not with the one thing they need - information about whether their relatives are safe.
Christabel told me how lucky her father had been. He tried to fight the fire but made it out alive.
Ed was saved when a friend called him to tell him to get out the building. "I'm lucky" he says. But they have lost everything.
Grenfell Tower, built in 1974, is part of the Lancaster West Estate, a sprawling inner-city social housing complex of almost 1,000 homes.
Robert Black, chief executive of the tower's management company, the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation, said: "The fire at Grenfell Tower is devastating and the reports of injury and losses of life absolutely heartbreaking.
"Along with my colleagues, I have been supporting residents since the early hours, working with the emergency services and the community."
The BBC's Andy Moore, who was at the scene through the night, described watching debris falling from the building, and hearing explosions and breaking glass.

Grenfell Tower, North Kensington

  • 120 flats
  • 24 storeys
  • 20 residential levels
  • 4 community/podium levels
  • 2016 refurbishment completed 


    The London Fire Brigade said a structural engineer had checked the building and determined it was not in danger of collapse and that rescue teams were safe to be inside.
    Initially, it was feared that the building, which appears to be gutted, could collapse.
    Mayor Sadiq Khan said he was devastated by the horrific scenes, attended by more than 250 firefighters and 100 ambulance medics.
    Questions will need to be answered over the safety of tower blocks, he told BBC Radio.
    "We can't have a situation where people's safety is put at risk because of bad advice being given or if it is the case, as has been alleged, of tower blocks not being properly serviced or maintained," he said.
    Matt Wrack, of the Fire Brigades Union said something had clearly gone badly wrong with fire prevention procedures at the building.
    Firefighters would normally fight a fire in a tower block from the inside, going up the fire escape, and fighting using the internal dry-rising mains, he said, but that's not been possible in this case.
    Construction firm Rydon said recent building work which it carried out on the block "met all required building control, fire regulation and health and safety standards".


    Appeals are being made on social media for news of missing friends and relatives, who might have been caught in the blaze.
    Emergency rest centres have opened for those now homeless at Latymer Community Centre, St Clement's Church, Harrow Club and Rugby Portobello Trust. There are also local collections under way for spare clothes, toys, blankets and toiletries.
    People are being advised by police to stay away from the area, where roads remain closed and nearby residents have been evacuated as a precaution.








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Otto Warmbier 'was brutalised by pariah N Korea', parents say

The parents of Otto Warmbier, the US student who is in a coma after being freed this week by North Korea, say he was "brutalised" by a "pariah regime".
The 22-year-old is now being treated in hospital after the flight carrying him landed in Ohio on Tuesday.
Mr Warmbier was sentenced to 15 years of hard labour for attempting to steal a propaganda sign from a hotel.
He was given a sleeping pill after becoming ill after his trial last year and did not wake up, North Korea said.
He is now being treated at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center.
How harsh is prison in North Korea?
"We want the world to know how we and our son have been brutalised and terrorised by the pariah regime," his parents, Fred and Cindy, said.
Former US ambassador and New Mexico governor Bill Richardson, who has previously served as special envoy to North Korea and in 2016 attempted to negotiate the release of the student, said the Warmbiers had updated him on their son's condition.
"In no uncertain terms, North Korea must explain the causes of his coma," Mr Richardson said.

The BBC's Stephen Evans in Seoul says it remains to be seen if Mr Warmbier's illness is the direct result of brutality in prison.
If it were, there might be pressure on President Trump to take action against Kim Jong-un's regime, he says.

Who is Otto Warmbier?

Otto Warmbier is an economics student from the University of Virginia, originally from Cincinnati, Ohio.
He was in North Korea as a tourist with Young Pioneer Tours when he was arrested on 2 January 2016.
He appeared emotional at a news conference a month later, in which he tearfully confessed to trying to take the sign as a "trophy" for a US church, adding: "The aim of my task was to harm the motivation and work ethic of the Korean people."
Foreign detainees in North Korea have previously recanted confessions, saying they were made under pressure.

After a short trial on 16 March, Mr Warmbier was given a 15-year prison sentence for crimes against the state.
His parents told CNN in early May that they had had no contact with their son for more than a year.

What is his condition now?

In a statement on Tuesday, Mr and Mrs Warmbier said: "Sadly, he is in a coma and we have been told he has been in that condition since March 2016. We learned of this only one week ago."

They were quoted by the Washington Post as saying they had been told Otto had contracted botulism, a rare illness that causes paralysis, soon after his trial in March 2016.
He was given a sleeping pill and had been in a coma ever since, the newspaper said.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson made no mention of Mr Warmbier's condition in a statement, saying only that he was on his way home to be reunited with his family and would not make any further comment, out of respect for the privacy of the family.

Who else is detained in North Korea?

There are reported to be three other US citizens in custody in North Korea. They are:
  • Kim Dong-chul, a 62-year-old naturalised US citizen born in South Korea, who was sentenced to 10 years hard labour in April 2016 for spying
  • Korean-American professor Kim Sang-duk (or Tony Kim) who was detained in April 2017. The reasons for his arrest are not yet clear
  • Kim Hak-song, like Kim Sang-duk, worked at the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST) and was detained in May 2017 on suspicion of "hostile acts" against the state
The US has in the past accused North Korea of detaining its citizens to use them as pawns in negotiations over its nuclear weapons programme.


The arrests have come at a time of heightened tension between North Korea and the US and its regional neighbours.

Why is Dennis Rodman in Pyongyang?

Mr Warmbier's release comes hours after US basketball star Dennis Rodman arrived in North Korea.
Mr Rodman is a friend of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and has made several visits to the country in recent years.
There was some speculation that he might plead the case for the American detainees, but en route to North Korea he told reporters "my purpose is to actually see if I can keep bringing sports to North Korea".
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E3 2017: Mario caps Nintendo's triumphant comeback

The return of Super Mario is set to be the crowning achievement in what’s already been a remarkable year of recovery for Nintendo.
The loyal (and I mean loyal) fans weren’t worried, but rewind a year and many people - myself included - were questioning Nintendo’s ability to compete realistically with Sony and Microsoft in the console market.
The Wii U - a follow-on to the wildly successful Wii - had tanked, and the new console, Switch, seemed like it would be just too basic to make an impact.
Yet at E3 this year, the company is brimming with confidence. Its strategy has paid off.
"It seems to have brought back Nintendo’s mojo,” says Tom Phillips, news editor at Eurogamer.
"You look at where Nintendo are now compared to 12 months ago, it’s really night and day. They really turned things around.”

Eyeing the Wii

The Switch got off to a blistering start when it came out in March. It sold almost three million units in the first month, making it the company’s fastest-selling console. The first big release - Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - is now considered to be one of the best games created, with several million copies sold.

And so it serves as a timely reminder that to judge games consoles on processing power, or true-to-life graphics capability, would be like reviewing a film based solely on the quality of its CGI. What Nintendo continually delivers is creativity other publishers can’t match.
Make no mistake, the enduring appeal of titles like Mario (or Zelda) isn’t nostalgia, but reinvention.
The Switch surpassed the company’s early expectations, so now the ambition is grander. The Wii sold more than 100 million units in its eight-year life. Can that be repeated?
“I’m not going to lie to you, the Wii is something that we’re looking at,” said Nicolas Wegnez, general manager for Nintendo in the UK, told the BBC.
"We would really love to go back to that growing path of really making many more people smile playing Nintendo products.”

Chubby plumber

To help in that aim, Nintendo will once again turn to its biggest star.
Super Mario Odyssey - whose October release date was announced on Tuesday - includes the chubby plumber's first foray into the “real” world as he, in at least one level, spends some time in what resembles a real city, modelled on New York.
You’re free to roam around and do tasks on your own - press on with the main story, or distract yourself with other missions. It’s just like Grand Theft Auto, but you’re helping people instead of shooting them in the face.
There’s a new gameplay mechanic that makes use of the Switch’s dual-motion controllers; a flick of the wrists flings Mario’s new hat - called Cappy - in any given direction as a way of defeating enemies or interacting with objects.
It’s impossible to get a real feel for the quality of a game in a noisy convention centre, so I’ll leave those more qualified than me to offer the true verdict of the game when it is released.
Until then, Nintendo will release Arms - a fighting game that had people flailing their arms all around us here - and Splatoon 2, a competitive paintball shooter featuring squids, which Nintendo is positioning as its e-sports headliner.

OK without 4K?

But Nintendo’s problem is one it has faced for over a decade now. Its console relies heavily on the games made by the geniuses within its own company. Third-party games, while growing in number, often feel like second-class citizens on Nintendo's platforms when compared to the treatment on the Xbox and PlayStation. As those consoles begin to offer full 4K visuals, that gap in quality will feel even wider.
“The [4K] resolution is one thing which is part of the project but for us there is a lot of innovation when you think about it in Switch," said Mr Wegnez.
"We’re going one way which is focused on new ways of playing, new gameplay experiences."
The gameplay experience on the Switch is innovative, but it’s not the dramatic shift we saw when the Wii came out, where games went from being about pressing buttons in your bedroom to waving swords in the living room with your nan.
That leap alone was enough to propel the Wii to incredible sales, but it’s unlikely the Switch can gather that much momentum with clever hardware alone - and without more third-party titles, there is arguably a ceiling to how successful the Switch can be.
"We are not such a big company as our competitors,” acknowledged Mr Wegnez.
"We need to do things differently. We really put a lot of love in our products."
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Apple to scan iPhones for child sex abuse images

  Apple has announced details of a system to find child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on customers' devices. Before an image is stored on...