25 years ago in March, bulldozers moved in to tear down the Kowloon Walled City, a condemned slum area that now evokes fascination and revulsion in Hong Kong’s collective memory.
Tuesday, July 31, 2018
Inside Hong Kong's Kowloon Walled City
25 years ago in March, bulldozers moved in to tear down the Kowloon Walled City, a condemned slum area that now evokes fascination and revulsion in Hong Kong’s collective memory.
How big a threat is ISIL to the Syrian government?
ISIL fighters killed over 240 people on Wednesday, raising the question how much ISIL threatens the Syrian government.
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) fighters have carried out their deadliest attacks for months in southern Syria.
Suicide bombers targeted a vegetable market, a hospital and a public square in the government-held city of al-Sweida on Wednesday.
Other fighters raided nearby towns and villages.
Dozens were killed, including pro-government fighters. Some activists and doctors say the number of fatalities is at least 240.
Six In The Morning Tuesday July 31
Sexual abuse 'endemic' in international aid sector, damning report finds
Updated 0733 GMT (1533 HKT) July 31, 2018
Sexual abuse of vulnerable women and girls by international aid workers is "endemic" and has been happening for years, with perpetrators easily moving around the sector undetected, according to a damning UK government report published Tuesday.
The inquiry heard "horrifying" stories of aid staff sexually exploiting the very people they were meant to be helping, including one homeless girl in Haiti who was given $1 by a worker for a nongovernmental organization (NGO) and raped.
The scathing report by the House of Commons International Development Committee comes after historical allegations of harassment and sexual misconduct by employees of several top NGOs, including Oxfam and Save the Children, surfaced earlier this year. Those allegations prompted the Committee to launch an inquiry into abuse in the aid sector in February.
'No Cambodia left': how Chinese money is changing Sihanoukville
The once-sleepy beach town of Sihanoukville has been transformed by Chinese investment – and the sheer speed of development has divided locals
Inside a lavishly decorated casino where chandeliers hang from the ceiling, cigarette smoke lingers in the air and platters of mango are served to gamblers, a game of baccarat is getting heated. Cards are slammed down, $100 bills are brandished and the gathered crowd of Chinese tourists shout excitedly.
This is not Las Vegas, nor is it Macau. It is Sihanoukville, a once-sleepy city in Cambodia that has become a ballooning enclave for Chinese-run casinos – despite gambling being banned. These towering skyscrapers and vast domed structures covered in flashing neon signs have transformed Sihanoukville beyond recognition in less than two years. It will have more than 70 of them by the end of 2018.
US ‘detects activity’ around North Korea missile site
It comes despite Donald Trump declaring last month that Kim Jong-un no longer posed a nuclear threat
US spy satellites have detected activity at the North Korean factory that produced the nation’s first such missiles capable of reaching the United States, a senior US official said.
Vehicles have been spotted entering and leaving the complex at Sanumdong, but it is unclear how advanced any missile construction might be, the official told Reuters.
Missing MH370 flight remains unexplained
Investigators said Monday they still do not know why Malaysia's Flight MH370 vanished four years ago in aviation's greatest mystery, sparking anger and disappointment among relatives of those on board.
In a long-awaited report the official investigation team pointed to failings by air traffic controllers, said the course of the Malaysia Airlines plane was changed manually, and refused to rule out that someone other than the pilots had diverted the jet.
But after years of fruitless searching for the Boeing 777 that disappeared in March 2014 with 239 people aboard, the report offered nothing concrete to grieving relatives of passengers and crew hoping for some sort of closure.
US airport security's 'Quiet Skies' programme tracks passengers
The US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is facing criticism for secretly tracking Americans on flights, US media report.
The "Quiet Skies" programme reportedly uses an unknown algorithm to flag flyers without any criminal record for surveillance on domestic flights.
Air marshals tasked with carrying out surveillance have pushed back against the programme, according to US media.
TSA denies any racial profiling and says it is a "practical" method.
"With routine reviews and active management via legal, privacy and civil rights and liberties offices, the programme is a practical method of keeping another act of terrorism from occurring at 30,000 feet," the agency said to the BBC in a statement.
Trump’s battle with the New York Times and A.G. Sulzberger, explained
The Times’s publisher warned Trump about the dangers of calling the press the “enemy of the people.” He’s still doing it anyway.
By
The latest chapter of Donald Trump versus the media unfolded over the weekend in the form of a back-and-forth between the president and the New York Times. The subject: an off-the-record meeting between Trump and the Times’s publisher, A.G. Sulzberger, that the president put on the record with a tweet.
On Sunday morning, Trump tweeted that he’d had a “very good and interesting meeting” at the White House with Sulzberger. He said they talked about the “vast amounts of Fake News being put out with the media” and again referred to the press as the “enemy of the people.”
Monday, July 30, 2018
How not to get phished (like the DNC)
New indictments against twelve Russian hackers give us a detailed account of just how they infiltrated the Democratic National Committee’s network. It started with a single spear phishing email; a personalized, targeted hacking attempt sent to an employee at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Once inside the DCCC network they were also able to gain access to the DNC using malware on employee’s computers. In 2016 the Russian hackers stole thousands of emails and sensitive documents — all because of one phishing email. It’s not just political organizations that are at risk: you’ll likely be targeted as well. And it’s getting harder and harder to spot a fake email or text message. Find out how to prevent hackers from getting to you, too.
Unfriending Facebook? Internet giants and their earnings
As Facebook makes stock market history, we examine the concentration of big profits in a handful of companies.
Internet giants Facebook, Amazon and Google's parent company, Alphabet, have published their quarterly earnings reports this week.
Alphabet earned $32.7bn in revenue in the past three months, with Google churning out extraordinary amounts of profit. Alphabet reported net income of $3.2bn. Without the antitrust battle with EU regulators over Google's Android mobile software, which led to a five billion dollar fine for the quarter, it would have been $8.3bn, the company said.
Six In The Morning Monday July 30
Zimbabwe election: First vote without Mugabe
Voters in Zimbabwe are going to the polls in the country's first election without the involvement of long-time leader Robert Mugabe.
The country's founding president, Mr Mugabe, was ousted last year after almost four decades in power.
The main contenders in the presidential vote are incumbent Emmerson Mnangagwa, of the ruling Zanu-PF party, and opposition leader Nelson Chamisa.
Parliamentary and local elections are also taking place on Monday.
Polls give Mr Mnangagwa, thought to be 75, a narrow lead over his 40-year-old rival, who leads the MDC (Movement for Democratic Change) Alliance.
Four million excluded from Indian state's draft list of citizens
Plan to identify ‘foreigners’ living in state of Assam creates panic among those who could be left without citizenship rights
About 4 million people who live in the Indian border state of Assam have been excluded from a draft list of citizens, as Bengali-speaking Muslims fear that they will be sent to detention centres or deported.
The state government has put stringent security in place while the chief minister, Sarbananda Sonowal, has told Indian media that those finding themselves stateless overnight should not worry.
Sonowal said that they would be given a chance to prove their claim of citizenship, that none of the 4 million would be sent to a detention camp, and that “no one will be treated as a foreigner”. Sonowal told the Hindustan Times that “ample opportunity will be given to applicants to prove their eligibility”.
Black teenage boys more likely to get maximum jail terms than white children
Exclusive: One in four black teenage boys guilty of manslaughter given maximum jail terms while none of their white peers sentenced to more than 10 years
The justice system is disproportionately handing out harsher sentences to black children convicted of homicide compared with their white peers, an investigation by The Independent has revealed.
Analysis of figures for 2009-17 shows one in four black teenage boys guilty of manslaughter were given maximum jail terms, while white children found guilty of the same crime were sentenced to no more than 10 years, with the majority getting less than four
The findings have prompted anger from MPs and campaigners who argue “cumulative” racial discrimination within policing and the judiciary means black young offenders are subjected to harsher punishments and therefore have worse life chances.
Firefighters battle 17 wildfires across California, other US states and Canada
Carr Fire in Northern California is the most destructive of 130 large, active wildfires burning across the US from Texas to Alaska and in Canada. A second firefighter has been killed near Yosemite.
The Carr Fire has burned 360 square kilometers (139 square miles) of vegetation in Northern California since it began last Monday. More than 500 buildings — 300 of them homes — have been destroyed and 39,000 people have been evacuated in and around the city of Redding, north of Sacramento.
A firefighter died when he was struck by a tree as he worked on the front line of a huge fire near California's Yosemite National Park on Sunday. He is the second firefighter fatality since another firefighter died when his bulldozer overturned earlier in the month. At least seven others have been injured.
Israel intercepts aid boat bound for besieged Gaza Strip
Vessel carrying some 23 people is redirected to the Israeli port of Ashdod, a week after setting off from Italy.
A boat loaded with aid for residents in the besieged Gaza Strip has been intercepted by Israeli naval forces.
The Awda, carrying at least 23 people, was meant to reach the Gaza port approximately at noon local time on Sunday, but was redirected instead to the Israeli port of Ashdod.
It was part of a flotilla attempting to break a 12-year-old blockade imposed by Israel and neighbouring Egypt.
THE LATEST TECHNOLOGIES promise cops the ability to whip out a smartphone, take a snapshot of a passerby, and instantly learn if that person is in an immigration or gang database.
A federal broadband program, designed after 9/11 to improve first responder communication during emergencies, will enhance this sort of capability and integrate it into an internet “super highway” built specifically for police and public safety. The program, called FirstNet, is already expanding the surveillance options available to law enforcement agencies across the country.
Sunday, July 29, 2018
Meet Donald Trump's Enemies Of The People
Donald Trump loves to call news that criticizes him fake and those that report on his misadventures and constant lying enemies of the people. Are those mentioned below enemies of the people and purveyor’s of fake news. No. They were just attempting to due their jobs
Al Jazeera corespondent Mahmoud Hussein has been in prison for 575 days in Egypt without having ever been charged with a crime.
Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were jailed in Myanmar accused of stealing state secrets after they attempted to report on human rights violations by the army against over the killing of 10 Rohingya men in Rakhine state.
Twenty-two journalists - including 11 in Afghanistan and two in Palestine - have died in targeted killings this year, frequently in retaliation for their work on exposing corruption or the activities of crime syndicatesFour journalists were killed while covering conflicts or civil unrest, and another
Hun Sen taking Donald Trump’s fake news complaints to the next levelCambodia 'fake news' crackdown prompts fears over press freedomCambodia’s media has under come increasing pressure after the closure of one independent newspaper and sale of anotherThe Cambodian government is extending its crackdown on “fake news”, just weeks before the increasingly authoritarian government of prime minister Hun Sen heads to the polls.A new directive aimed at fake news posted on websites and social media platforms could see violators jailed for two years and fined US$1,000, according to a report in the Khmer Times.Websites will now also be required to register with Cambodia’s information ministry. Pos Sovann, an official from the ministry said the directive was effective immediately.five died while on assignment. Of the 49 journalists killed, four were women.
Thailand's Miracle Cave Rescue
The extraordinary inside story of the rescue of a young Thai football team from Tham Luang cave in Thailand.
It was supposed to be a day trip - 12 young boys and their football coach exploring the rugged mountains of northern Thailand and the Tham Luang cave. But instead, they disappeared.
Tham Luang is a 10-kilometre long limestone cave system with deep recesses and narrow passageways. Most of the year, it's relatively dry. But when the monsoon comes, it quickly fills with water, making the caves impossible to enter. Or to leave.
Within 24 hours of the boys going missing, a search operation was under way. The boys' bikes and backpacks were found near the entrance to the cave. Distraught family members gathered.
Six In The Morning Sunday July 29
Indonesia earthquake: 10 dead on tourist island Lombok
A powerful earthquake has struck a popular tourist destination in Indonesia, killing at least 10 people.
The 6.4 magnitude quake hit the central Indonesian island of Lombok just before 07:00 local time (00:00 GMT) on Sunday.
The island attracts tourists from around the world due to its beaches and hiking trails, and is located about 40km (25 miles) east of Bali.
Many buildings have been damaged and dozens of people have been injured by falling debris, officials say.
A Malaysian tourist who was on a hiking trip to Mount Rinjani is reportedly among those killed.
Trump golf resort wrecked special nature site, reports reveal
US president’s broken promises have ruined a fragile dune system in Aberdeenshire
The spectacular dunes system picked by Donald Trump for his golf resort in Aberdeenshire has been “partially destroyed” as a result of the course’s construction, documents released under the Freedom of Information Act have revealed.
Scottish Natural Heritage, which has been under pressure for years to speak out on the issue, now acknowledges that serious damage has been done to the site of special scientific interest (SSSI) at Foveran Links on the Menie estate, north of Aberdeen, since the course opened in 2012, the documents show.
As a result, Foveran’s SSSI status – given because of its unusual shifting sands and diverse plant life – now hangs in the balance.
Qatar World Cup 2022 bid team accused of secret 'black-ops' campaign to sabotage rivals
CIA agents and PR agency allegedly spread fake propaganda about US and Australia
The Qatar World Cup bid team allegedly broke Fifa rules by running a secret "black-ops" campaign to sabotage rivals competing for the 2022 tournament.
The team used former CIA agents and a PR agency to spread fake propaganda about the US and Australia, its two main competitors, according to documents leaked to The Sunday Times.
The campaign allegedly involved recruiting prominent figures to criticise the bids in their own countries, thus giving the impression they lacked support at home.
China's Xinjiang ProvinceA Surveillance State Unlike Any the World Has Ever Seen
In western China, Beijing is using the most modern means available to control its Uighur minority. Tens of thousands have disappeared into re-education camps. A journey to an eerily quiet region.
These days, the city of Kashgar in westernmost China feels a bit like Baghdad after the war. The sound of wailing sirens fills the air, armed trucks patrol the streets and fighter jets roar above the city. The few hotels that still host a smattering of tourists are surrounded by high concrete walls. Police in protective vests and helmets direct the traffic with sweeping, bossy gestures, sometimes yelling at those who don't comply.
But now and then, a ghostly calm descends on the city. Just after noon, when it's time for Friday prayers, the square in front of the huge Id Kah Mosque lies empty. There's no muezzin piercing the air, just a gentle buzz on the rare occasion that someone passes through the metal detector at the entrance to the mosque. Dozens of surveillance cameras overlook the square. Security forces, some in uniform and others in plain-clothes, do the rounds of the Old Town with such stealth it's as if they were trying to read people's minds.
Palestinian protest icon Ahed Tamimi out of Israeli prison
Palestinian teenager Ahed Tamimi was released from prison Sunday after an eight-month sentence for slapping two Israeli soldiers, an episode captured on video that made her a symbol of resistance for Palestinians.
Tamimi, 17, and her mother Nariman were driven early on Sunday from the Sharon prison inside Israel to a checkpoint leading to the occupied West Bank, where they live, prison spokesman Assaf Librati said.
They were then handed over to Israeli soldiers, he said, who brought them to their village of Nabi Saleh.
Ghost of Mugabe looms over Zimbabwe election
Updated 0420 GMT (1220 HKT) July 29, 2018
For the first time in a generation, there will be a glaring omission on the ballot form when Zimbabweans go to the polls on Monday.
Robert Mugabe may have disappeared from the public view, but his ghost still lingers over a vote which threatens to be one of the closest in the country's history.
Mugabe, now 94, ruled Zimbabwe for 37 years before resigning last November amid the pressure of a military takeover and the humiliation of impeachment.
Saturday, July 28, 2018
Divided island: How Haiti and the DR became two worlds
Haiti and the Dominican Republic share a border, and an island. But the two countries are very different today: the Dominican Republic enjoys higher quality of life for many factors than Haiti. I went to this island and visited both countries, to try and understand when and how their paths diverged. And I began to learn how those differences are playing out in the present.
Six In The Morning Saturday July 28
Seven things Pakistan's election results reveal
Did the army control the process from the start, were votes rigged, and can Imran Khan deliver stability to the country?by Asad Hashim
With election results from at least 267 of Pakistan's 272 National Assembly constituencies now in, we can begin to make some sense of what has been a historic vote in the South Asian country, seeing Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) emerging as the single largest party in parliament for the first time ever.
The PTI has broken the duopoly held by the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) for decades.
Pakistan has also been directly ruled by the military for roughly half of its 70-year history.
Colombian journalists say death threats reflect 'ugly' climate under new leader
Journalists say ‘dangerous new atmosphere’ has emerged since Iván Duque, a fierce opponent of the peace process, took power
Prominent Colombian journalists have warned that a string of death threats over their coverage of the country’s peace process reflects an “ugly and dangerous new atmosphere” in the country since the election of its new president.
MarÃa Jimena Duzán of the weekly magazine Semana was threatend on Twitter with a message urging she be “raped, spat upon, chopped up with a chainsaw and hung in the Plaza de BolÃvar” – the main square in the capital, Bogotá.
Minutes after the threat was sent, the account which posted it and the IP address were closed.
Lawmakers trying to stop the production of 3-D-printed guns. But it might be too late
Lack of serial numbers on printed firearms makes them near-impossible to trace, say gun-control campaigners
US gun safety campaigners have expressed their anger over Congress' failure to regulate the manufacture of 3-D printed guns.
Following a multi-year legal battle, the federal government last month entered into a settlement with Defense Distributed founder, Cody Wilson.
Mr Wilson rose to fame after manufacturing the the first fully 3-D printed pistol in 2013, when he was just 25. Within days of publication, Mr Wilson's design files had been downloaded more than 100,000 times.Julian Assange looks for deal to end 'diplomatic isolation'
Updated 0843 GMT (1643 HKT) July 28, 2018
Julian Assange walked into the Ecuadorian Embassy in London on June 19, 2012 to claim political asylum. He has been there ever since -- a total of 2,230 days -- rarely seeing daylight. But multiple sources say his situation is now untenable and he may soon leave, whether he wants to or not.
The question is: what will happen to Assange as and when he does walk out of his bolt-hole around the corner from Harrods?
The recent indictments issued by US Special Counsel Robert Mueller imply that Assange and WikiLeaks were a conduit for Russian intelligence in distributing hacked Democratic Party emails in 2016.
Carr fire: California blaze leaves two dead
A raging wildfire in northern California has killed two firefighters and forced tens of thousands of people to flee their homes.
The fires in Shasta county are being sucked up by strong winds to form "fire tornados" that are uprooting trees and overturning cars, fire officials say.
The fires have destroyed at least 500 structures and are threatening thousands of homes.
Firefighters are battling the blaze, which is only 5% contained so far.
The wildfire, which has been named the Carr fire, began on Monday and has scorched over 48,000 acres (194 sq km) of land - an area larger than the city of San Francisco.
Disaster-hit Japan braces for powerful typhoon
Today 03:13 pm JST
A powerful typhoon hurtled towards Japan Saturday, with western areas recently devastated by floods and landslides in the storm's cross-hairs.
Typhoon Jongdari, packing winds of up to 180 kilometres (110 miles) an hour, is forecast to make landfall on the country's main island on Saturday night or early Sunday, according to Japan's Meteorological Agency.
The storm, currently some 400 kilometres southeast of Tokyo, is expected to barrel towards the western Chugoku region Sunday, where record rainfall earlier this month unleashed flooding and landslides, killing around 220 people.
Authorities are warning of heavy rain, landslides, strong winds and high waves, and urging people to consider early evacuation.
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