内容摘要：Congo is the world’s largest producer of cobalt, a mineral used to make lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles and smartphones. It also has substantial gold, diamond and copper reserves.

Congo is the world’s largest producer of cobalt, a mineral used to make lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles and smartphones. It also has substantial gold, diamond and copper reserves.

, which is associated with the Chinese Ministry of State Security, was behind the campaign.It was not immediately clear what specific information were seized or what damage was caused by the attacks. The Czech ministry said a new communication system has already been put in place.

Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský said in a separate statement that his ministry summoned China’s ambassador to Prague to make it clear to Beijing “that such activities have serious impacts on mutual relations.”“The government of the Czech Republic strongly condemns this malicious cyber campaign against its critical infrastructure,” the statement said. “Such behavior undermines the credibility of the People’s Republic of China and contradicts its public declarations.”The Chinese Embassy dismissed the Czech accusations as “groundless.” It said China fights “all forms of cyber attacks and does not support, promote or tolerate hacker attacks.”

The United States denounced the Chinese activities and called on China to stop it immediately, the U.S. Embassy in Prague said in a statement. It saidand foreign politicians, foreign policy experts and others.

“APT31 has also stolen trade secrets and intellectual property, and targeted entities in some of America’s most vital critical infrastructure sectors, including the Defense Industrial Base, information technology, and energy sectors,” the embassy said.

NATO and the European Union also condemned the attack and expressed solidarity with the Czechs.Once all the acts have performed in the final, the winner is chosen by a famously complex mix of phone and online voters from around the world and rankings by music-industry juries in each of the Eurovision countries. As the results are announced, countries slide up and down the rankings and tensions build.

Ending up with “nul points,” or zero, is considered a national humiliation.The final starts Saturday at 1900 GMT (3 p.m. EDT) and will be aired by national broadcasters in participating nations, on streaming service Peacock in the United States and in many countries on the

During and immediately after the final, viewers in participating countries can vote by phone, text message or the Eurovision app — but not for their own country. Viewers in the U.S. and other nonparticipating countries can vote all day Saturday, online ator with the app. The combined “rest of the world” vote is given the weight of one individual country.