‘GREATER FREEDOM’: Lu Siwei represented one of the 12 Hong Kongers arrested at sea, and lost his license for making comments that had a ‘negative impact on society’
A Chinese lawyer who represented a Hong Kong pro-democracy advocate was stripped of his license amid efforts by Beijing to crush opposition to its tighter control over the territory. Lu Siwei (盧思位), who represented one of 12 Hong Kong advocates who tried to flee to Taiwan, had his license revoked by the Sichuan Provincial Department of Justice in a formal notice given on Friday. Ten of the 12 activists caught at sea in August last year were last month sentenced by a court in Shenzhen to prison terms ranging from seven months to three years for illegally crossing the border and organizing illegal border crossings. They are part of an exodus of Hong Kong residents following Beijing’s imposition of a tough National Security Law they say is destroying the territory’s Western-style civil liberties. Since the law was introduced in response to anti-government protests that began in 2019, dozens of pro-democracy advocates have been arrested or detained. The law has been denounced by European nations, the US and others. Beijing has said the legislation allows Hong Kong to “enjoy more social stability, economic development and greater freedom.” Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Hua Chunying (華春瑩) called the 12 advocates “elements attempting to separate Hong Kong from China.” Beijing, which requires lawyers to swear an oath of loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party, has tightened control over the profession. Other lawyers have been stripped of their licenses for representing defendants in politically sensitive cases. Some have been imprisoned. In a notice last week, the Chengdu office of the Sichuan Department of Justice said Lu had contravened laws on professional legal conduct. It accused him of making comments online that had a “negative impact on society.” Also last week, Ren Quanniu (任全牛), another lawyer for one of the 12 advocates, was notified by the Zhengzhou office of the Henan
The Polish Supreme Court on Friday quashed a lower court’s green light for the extradition of a businessman to China for alleged fraud, a charge he has denied, saying that he is being targeted for supporting Falun Gong. Polish authorities took Chinese-born Swedish citizen Li Zhihui, now 53, into custody in 2019 on an international warrant issued by China for alleged non-payment in a business deal, Krzysztof Kitajgrodzki, his Polish lawyer, told reporters. Following the Supreme Court ruling, the case would return to a lower appellate court for review. Kitajgrodzki told reporters that it was still not a given that his client would avoid extradition. “It’s certainly a good decision at this stage, but we still can’t call it a success,” he said, adding that the Supreme Court has required that the lower court ask China to explain the nature of the sentence his client faces. He said that Li was unlikely to get a fair trial in China and could be sentenced to life in prison or even death due to his membership of Falun Gong, a religious group that has been banned by Chinese authorities. Kitajgrodzki has said that his client is also being targeted for quitting the Chinese Communist Party. The charges leveled by China stem from a 2011-2012 business deal, the lawyer said. He also said that it was about this time that Li, whose family made bed linens, moved to Sweden and subsequently gained citizenship there. The Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs on a Wednesday said in a statement to parliament that it had been “actively working” on the case and voiced concerns, saying that “human rights violations in China are extensive and appear to be on the rise.” Regardless of any court ruling on the matter, under Polish law the minister of justice has the final say on extradition requests. Kitajgrodzki said his client
German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right party yesterday chose North Rhine-Westphalia Premier Armin Laschet as its new leader — sending a signal of continuity months before an election in which voters are to decide who becomes the new chancellor. Laschet defeated Friedrich Merz, a conservative and one-time Merkel rival, at an online convention of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). Laschet won 521 votes to Merz’s 466. A third candidate, lawmaker Norbert Roettgen, was eliminated in a first round of voting. Yesterday’s vote was not the final word on who would run as the center-right candidate for chancellor in Germany’s Sept. 26 election, but Laschet would either run for chancellor or would have a big say in who does. Merkel, who has been chancellor since 2005, announced in late 2018 that she would not seek a fifth term. She also stepped down from the CDU leadership. The decision ends an 11-month leadership limbo in Germany’s strongest party after outgoing leader Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, who had failed to impose her authority on the party, announced her resignation. There had been no clear favorite going into yesterday’s convention, but the election of Merz would have marked at least a symbolic break with the Merkel era. Laschet would now have to work to secure party unity. Laschet, 59, was elected in 2017 as premier of North Rhine-Westphalia state, a traditional center-left stronghold. He governs the region in a coalition with the pro-business Free Democrats, the CDU’s traditional ally on the right. Polls point to the environmentalist Greens as a possible key to power in the election. Laschet yesterday pointed to the value of continuity and moderation, and cited the storming of the US Capitol by supporters of US President Donald Trump as an example of where deliberate polarization can lead. “Trust is what keeps us going and what has been broken in America,”
The ex-lover of Spain’s king emeritus on Friday testified that her life had been threatened by a former spy chief on orders from the exiled monarch in a conversation that “terrified” her. The explosive testimony by German-born business consultant Corinna Larsen emerged during the trial of a notorious retired police chief suspected of large-scale corruption whose revelations have shaken Spain’s elite. However, her allegations were denied by General Felix Sanz Roldan, who served as head of Spain’s CNI intelligence service from 2009 to 2019. Speaking to a court in Madrid by video conference from London, Larsen — who also uses the surname Zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn — said she had been directly threatened in May 2012 by Sanz Roldan. She testified that the orders had ultimately come from then-Spanish king Juan Carlos I. During her affair with the king, which she said ended in 2012, two years before his abdication, Larsen said she received sensitive documents about the “financial and business dealings” of the king and the royal household, which the security services wanted to get hold of. Testifying in court, she said Sanz Roldan had contacted her on several occasions to make clear that until she handed over the documents, she would not be safe, threatening both her and her children in a meeting at London’s Connaught Hotel on May 5, 2012. She said he had laid out various recommendations, “which were in fact orders” that he advised her to follow. “He said unless I followed them, he could not guarantee my physical safety or the physical safety of my children,” she told the court, saying his words “terrified me.” However, Sanz Roldan flatly denied the allegations, later telling the court that he had “never ever threatened a woman or a child.” Larsen said the meeting had been “organized at the express wish” of
UNITED STATES Death row inmate executed The administration of President Donald Trump on Friday carried out its 13th federal execution since July last year, an unprecedented run that concluded just five days before the inauguration of president-elect Joe Biden — an opponent of the federal death penalty. Dustin Higgs, convicted in the killings of three women in a Maryland wildlife refuge in 1996, was the third to receive a lethal injection this week at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana. Trump’s Department of Justice resumed federal executions last year following a 17-year hiatus. No president in more than 120 years had overseen as many federal executions. Higgs, 48, was pronounced dead at 1:23am. BELGIUM Owner sleeps inside cafe A fed-up cafe owner is sleeping in her premises with little food, in protest of the months-long shutdown of her sector to curb the spread of COVID-19. “To remain like this, without working, losing everything — every day to see you’re losing a little bit more — it’s hard,” Christelle Carion told reporters as she sat on the edge of her bed, set up beside the bar. The 48-year-old has been holed up in the closed Amon Nos Autes cafe in the eastern village of Pepinster since Tuesday, to draw attention to the ordeal that she and other owners in the bar and restaurant sector are going through. They have been ordered shut since Oct. 19 last year to counter the second coronavirus wave sweeping Europe, after having been closed for three months for the first wave early last year. GUATEMALA Migrants cross border At least 4,500 Honduran migrants on Friday night pushed past police and crossed into Guatemala, passing the first hurdle of a journey north they hope will take them to a better life in the US. The crowd of men, women and children — many wearing
SHOW OF STRENGTH? Pyongyang’s display of new weaponry is aimed at sending a message to the US ahead of its presidential inauguration, analysts said
Nuclear-armed North Korea unveiled a new submarine-launched ballistic missile at a military parade in Pyongyang, state media reported yesterday, in a show of strength days before the inauguration of US president-elect Joe Biden. The parade came after the five-yearly congress of the ruling Workers’ Party, at which the country’s leader, Kim Jong-un, decried the US as North Korea’s “foremost principal enemy.” “The world’s most powerful weapon, submarine-launch ballistic missile, entered the square one after another, powerfully demonstrating the might of the revolutionary armed forces,” the North’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said. Pictures showed at least 12 of the missiles with black-and-white cones being driven past flag-waving crowds. Ankit Panda, a fellow at the Carnegie Endowment on International Peace, said that it was a previously unseen weapon. “New year, new Pukguksong,” he wrote on Twitter, using the name for the North’s submarine-launched ballistic missiles. Kim oversaw the display, which included rockets with a “powerful striking capability for thoroughly annihilating enemies in a pre-emptive way outside the territory,” KCNA said, implying a range extending beyond the Korean Peninsula. Images showed the parade ending with what appeared to be a new solid-fuel short-range ballistic missile — which are more mobile and more quickly deployed than liquid-fueled versions. “They’d like us to notice that they’re getting more proficient with larger solid rocket boosters,” Panda tweeted. Analysts say that the North is using the congress to send Washington’s incoming administration a message of strength in an attempt to extract concessions. Kim and US President Donald Trump had a tumultuous relationship, engaging in mutual insults and threats of war before an extraordinary diplomatic bromance featuring headline-grabbing summits and declarations of love by the outgoing US president. However, little substantive progress was made, with the process deadlocked after a February 2019 summit in Hanoi broke down over sanctions relief and what Pyongyang would be willing to
China has possibly committed “genocide” in its treatment of Uighurs and other minority Muslims in its western region of Xinjiang, the US Congressional-Executive Commission on China said in a report on Thursday. The bipartisan commission said that new evidence had last year emerged that “crimes against humanity — and possibly genocide — are occurring” in Xinjiang. It also accused China of harassing Uighurs in the US. China has been widely condemned for setting up complexes in Xinjiang that it describes as “vocational training centers” to stamp out extremism and give people new skills, which others have called concentration camps. The UN says that at least 1 million Uighurs and other Muslims have been detained in Xinjiang. Faith leaders, activist groups and others have said that crimes against humanity, including genocide, are taking place there. Beijing denies the accusations and the Chinese embassy in Washington said that the commission was “obsessed with making up all sorts of lies to vilify China.” “The so-called ‘genocide’ is a rumor deliberately started by some anti-China forces and a farce to discredit China,” an embassy spokesperson said. The report called for a formal US “determination on whether atrocities are being committed” in Xinjiang, something required within 90 days of US legislation passed on Dec. 27 last year. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in his final days in office before US president-elect Joe Biden succeeds US President Donald Trump on Wednesday next week, has already been weighing a determination. However, given the current turmoil in Washington, officials have played down the possibility of an announcement before that. US Representative Jim McGovern, a Democrat who cochairs the commission, called China’s actions to crush human rights “shocking and unprecedented” and urged Congress and the incoming Biden administration to hold Beijing accountable. “The United States must continue to stand with the people of China in their struggle,
A huge fire on Thursday tore through a Rohingya refugee camp, destroying more than 550 shanty homes. While 3,500 people were left homeless, no casualties were reported, aid agencies said. The blaze started when most people in the sprawling Nayapara camp were asleep. Tens of thousands of members of the Muslim minority who in 2017 fled a military crackdown in neighboring Myanmar live in the overcrowded camp. International aid agencies said in a joint statement that it took firefighters two hours to bring the “devastating” fire under control. “Very fortunately, no deaths or serious injuries have been reported, and the few people with minor injuries have been released after initial treatment,” the Inter-Sector Coordination Group said. The agencies estimated that some 3,500 people had been left homeless after more than 550 of the tin and bamboo shelters were destroyed along with a community center and several shops. The fire started at about 2:00am and was suspected to have been caused by a cooking cylinder, Bangladeshi Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner Rezwan Hayat said. About 10 people had been injured, he said. Residents quoted by aid workers said that huge flames quickly engulfed the shanties. “We have immediately supplied hot food and bamboo and tarpaulins to the affected people to reconstruct their homes,” Hayat said. Nayapara is one of a string of camps in the Cox’s Bazar district of southeastern Bangladesh where more than 900,000 Rohingya live. About 700,000 fled across the border in 2017 after the Myanmar crackdown that the UN has said could be genocide. Save the Children country director in Bangladesh Onno van Manen said that the fire was “another devastating blow for the Rohingya people who have endured unspeakable hardship for years.” The fire was “another ghastly reminder” that children in the camps “face a bleak future with little freedom of movement, inadequate access to education, poverty, serious
NO CHOICE: The Philippine president said: ‘Rich countries bought all the supplies,’ while an Indonesian Ministry of Health official said that delay only increases the death toll
Several countries in Southeast Asia are expected to deploy the Chinese Sinovac vaccine despite concerns over its efficacy. Data released this week from a trial of the Sinovac jab in Brazil suggested that its efficacy was 50.4 percent — lower than previously thought and only just above the requirement set by the WHO. Indonesia has ordered 125 million doses from Sinovac and began its vaccination campaign with Indonesian President Joko Widodo receiving a jab live on television. The Philippines has signed a deal for 25 million doses, while Myanmar has been promised a donation of vaccines by China. Thailand, whose biggest supplier is AstraZeneca, has ordered 2 million Sinovac doses and hopes to start administering the first batch next month. Elsewhere, Turkey began on Thursday to administer the Sinovac vaccine to healthcare workers, after approving it for emergency use. Health experts fear that public trust has been undermined by a series of conflicting efficacy findings, saying that a lack of data is hampering their understanding of how the vaccine works. Turkish researchers reported that it had 91.25 percent efficacy and an Indonesian trial reported 65.3 percent, while Brazilian research teams last week said that it was 78 percent effective in preventing mild to severe cases of COVID-19, only to later clarify that this was just a partial picture. On Tuesday, it was announced that the efficacy was 50.4 percent for all symptomatic infections, including very mild infections not requiring clinical assistance. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has defended the Sinovac shot, saying that it is “as good as any other vaccines invented by the Americans or the Europeans.” Duterte on Thursday said that there had been a scramble for vaccines and “rich countries bought all the supplies.” The Thai government, which has reintroduced restrictions after a new wave of cases emerged last month, said that it was requesting more information
The Indian government is to hold new talks with the leaders of tens of thousands of farmers camped on the outskirts of New Delhi for almost two months protesting for the repeal of new agricultural laws that they say threaten their livelihoods. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has been urging the farmers to end their protest over the laws introduced in September last year, but the farmers say that they will not relent on their demands, as the bills are designed to benefit private buyers at the expense of growers. Previous rounds of talks have so far failed to mollify tens of thousands of farmers who have been camping out on the outskirts of the capital New Delhi. Farmers have threatened to further intensify their agitation by marching to New Delhi on Jan. 26, India’s Republic Day celebration. On Tuesday, the Indian Supreme Court ordered an indefinite stay on the implementation of new agricultural laws and appointed a four-member panel to hear farmers’ objections. Raising doubts over the panel’s composition, farmer union leaders have said that they would not appear before the panel. Bhupinder Singh Mann, one of the four members, has recused himself from the panel. Mann comes from the northern state of Punjab, one of India’s breadbasket states, and Punjab’s politically influential farmers have been at the vanguard of the agitation against the three laws. Yesterday, the main opposition Congress party organized protests at state capitals to support farmers’ agitation.
The story of the daughter of an Indian Sufi mystic, who was killed while working as a British secret agent fighting with the French resistance in World War II, is to be told in a TV drama series. Noor Inayat Khan, who was captured by the Gestapo and executed in the Dachau concentration camp, would be portrayed by Freida Pinto, star of the Oscar-winning film Slumdog Millionaire. The series, Spy Princess, is described as an emotional thriller. It is to be directed by Anand Tucker and produced by Andy Paterson, known for the films Girl With a Pearl Earring and Hilary and Jackie. Khan became the first female radio operator to be sent to Nazi-occupied France. Sending vital messages back to London from behind enemy lines, she significantly aided the success of the Allied landing on the beaches of Normandy, France, on D-Day. Codenamed “Madeleine,” she became a significant target for the Gestapo and was aged 29 when captured in 1943. She was tortured before being shot in the head the following year, having revealed nothing to her captors. Pinto, who is also executive producer of the series, described Khan as “a fierce and amazing woman, the most unlikely heroine of World War II.” She said that as a wireless operator in occupied France, Khan had a life expectancy of just six weeks. “Sending women to the front line is controversial even now,” Pinto said. “Sending a Sufi mystic, who won’t use a gun, daughter of a long-haired Indian guru who preaches love and peace — ridiculous.” “But Noor thrives, not in spite of her differences, but because of them,” Pinto added. “Her struggle to reconcile her values with the desire to find her own path and with her complex sense of duty is something I am so excited to explore.” “It’s fabulous, in terms of diversity, to find proper, wonderful stories
‘PEACEFUL AND TRANQUIL’: Despite a violent campaign, an Internet blackout, the presence of soldiers and riot police, officials said the election had been largely peaceful
Ugandan opposition leader Bobi Wine yesterday claimed victory in a presidential election, rejecting early results which gave Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni a wide lead as a “joke.” “I am very confident that we defeated the dictator by far. I call upon all Ugandans to reject the blackmail. We have certainly won the election and we’ve won it by far,” he told journalists. The 38-year-old former ragga singer turned politician has been the main rival to Uganda’s veteran leader who has been in power for nearly four decades and is seeking a sixth term in office. The Internet remained down for a third day as vote counting continued, with provisional results from 29 percent of polling stations giving Museveni an early lead of 63 percent, while Wine trailed with 28 percent. “The people of Uganda voted massively for change of leadership from a dictatorship to a democratic government, but Mr Museveni is trying to paint a picture that he is in the lead. What a joke,” Wine said. He said the election was marred by “illegal, high handed actions which Museveni and his regime of blood have undertaken to set stage for the worst rigging this country has even witnessed.” He said he would detail the irregularities once the internet was restored. His comments contradicted the government’s account that Thursday’s vote had been largely peaceful. The capital, Kampala, was quiet and some businesses remained closed, while soldiers and police patrolled on foot the day after the election. Full results are expected by today. Museveni’s main rival among 10 opposition candidates is Wine, whose popularity among a youthful population has rattled the former rebel leader. Voting in Kampala took place under the security presence of soldiers and riot police in the streets and at polling stations. The election followed one of the most violent campaigns in years, with harassment and arrests of the opposition,
A ‘MESSY SITUATION’: China and Russia opposed the appointment of the Fiji ambassador over concerns she would be an ‘active’ president, sources said
The UN Human Rights Council this week is to hold an unprecedented secret ballot to pick its president after China and others blocked a candidate from Fiji considered a rights champion, sources and analysts said. “There has been a standoff,” said a source close to the council who asked not to be named. “It is a very, very messy situation.” The dispute could underscore growing jostling in the top UN rights body by countries intent on steering it away from criticizing nations over alleged abuses of individual rights and towards focusing on advances in economic and social rights. The council’s presidency rotates each year between regions and is typically agreed upon by consensus within each regional group. This year, the Asia-Pacific group due to take the helm failed to agree on a candidate — or even on holding a vote within the group. That means the council, which for the first time in its 15-year history began the year with no president, was yesterday to hold an unprecedented vote among all 47 members. Sources close to deliberations said that China, Russia and Saudi Arabia and others balked at the widely expected appointment of Fiji’s ambassador, and orchestrated an opposing candidacy. Among the official objections was that Fiji had presented its candidacy too early, prior to elections of this year’s council members. However, rights groups said the opposition was likely driven by the Pacific island nation’s outspokenness on rights issues. “They would say that Fiji is too pro-Western,” said Marc Limon, executive director of think tank Universal Rights Group. “But I think in reality, their problem is that Fiji is pro-human rights, and has taken strong positions on the council,” he said. A senior Chinese diplomat rejected allegations that China had opposed Fiji or urged others to do so, insisting this was a “misinterpretation of our position.” Asking not to be named, the
When US president-elect Joe Biden enters the White House next week, his administration would be in a race against time to salvage a landmark nuclear arms accord with Russia. The New START, which expires just 16 days after Biden’s inauguration, is the last major arms reduction pact between old foes whose bulging nuclear stockpiles dominated fears for global security during the Cold War. The fast-approaching deadline to find compromise comes as tensions between Moscow and Washington are at fever pitch over hacking allegations, and after Biden vowed to take a firm stand against Russia. The stakes of reaching an agreement are high, said Elena Chernenko, a foreign editor at Russia’s Kommersant newspaper who has closely followed negotiations. “The treaty limits the chances of one side miscalculating the intentions or plans of the other, which we saw happen several times leading to very dangerous moments during the Cold War,” she said. Any agreement is also likely to define spending priorities for both governments, Russian political columnist Vladimir Frolov said. Extending New START could determine in Moscow and Washington whether “more money than necessary would have to be spent on nuclear toys as opposed to healthcare,” he said. New START was signed in 2010 between then-US president Barack Obama and former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, curbing warheads to 1,550 each and restricting numbers of launchers and bombers. Biden would be eager to score a big diplomatic win early in his term, but he is also under pressure to tread a fine line and make good on a campaign promise to be tough on Russia. Lawmakers in the US demanded punishment for Russia last year after concluding that Kremlin-backed hackers were behind a sweeping cyberintrusion into government institutions. That standoff is just the latest in a litany of disagreements over conflicts in Ukraine and Syria and allegations of Russian election meddling. Still, rhetoric from
With a chainsaw in his car, Ahmed Abdelal tours the Gaza Strip, asking around for people wanting to cut down trees, regrow orchards or make way for construction. One of the few remaining woodcutters in the Palestinian territory, Abdelal, who learned woodcutting from his father, is struggling to scratch out a living in a traditional job that is less and less in demand. Job opportunities are rare in this Palestinian enclave wedged between Israel and Egypt next to the Mediterranean Sea, and so are green spaces. Rapid population growth — more than 2 million people are crammed in a 360km2 strip — comes at the expense of arable land. Israel maintains a 300m wide buffer zone along its frontier with Gaza. At the height of the second Palestinian uprising in the early 2000s, its military bulldozers leveled large swaths of citrus groves in the border areas. Over the past few years, Gaza has suffered under a blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt after the Islamic militant Hamas group seized control of the territory from the Palestinian Authority in 2007. Israel says the restrictions are needed to prevent Hamas from upgrading its weapons. The Palestinian Authority holds sway in the West Bank. The blockade and the rift between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority have weakened Gaza’s energy sector. As a result, residents are put on a rotating electricity schedule of eight hours on, followed by an eight-hour blackout. Here, woodcutters like Abdelal find an opportunity. The unreliability of the power supply drives up demand for wood in winter. Abdelal and other Gaza woodcutters look to expand their clientele from the traditional buyers of logs, residents of rural areas who bake bread on wood-fire ovens and tribal councils who keep the Arabic coffee pots warm near a wood fire. Among Abdelal’s favorite clients are small kitchens that cook food in ovens dug under the
INFILTRATION: Last week’s US Capitol riot has forced a spotlight on a threat experts have long warned about: extremism and white supremacy within the security forces
They swore to serve and protect, but a week after extremists stormed the US Capitol, police departments and military branches across the US are investigating reports some of their own formed part of the mob. From Ashli Babbitt, the US Air Force veteran shot dead as she tried to force her way toward the House of Representatives chamber, to retired US Air Force reserves, US Army officers and law enforcement from Seattle to New York, reports have emerged of off-duty police officers and former members of the military participating in the riot. The reports have forced a spotlight on a threat that experts have long warned about, largely in vain: extremism and white supremacy within the US security forces. “We’ve neglected this threat for 10 years. Ignored it, minimized it, turned a blind eye to it. This administration has actually coddled these people, calling them special,” said Daryl Johnson, a former US Department of Homeland Security domestic terrorism team leader and intelligence analyst, who served from 2004 to 2010. Christian Picciolini, a one-time white supremacist who now works to “deradicalize” extremists with The Free Radicals Project, said that he was not surprised some police officers and former military personnel were among the rioters seeking to overturn the presidential election results on Wednesday last week. “It has long been an effort by white supremacists to infiltrate and recruit from the pool of law enforcement, military and other first responders,” Picciolini said. The fears extend to the Capitol Police, the agency in charge of securing the building. Several officers have been suspended and about a dozen are being investigated, after reports that they took selfies with the mob and videos which seem to show them allowing protesters into the building. The FBI in 2006 published a report on infiltration of law enforcement by white supremacist groups, while the US Department
One of the Tower of London’s ravens, the conspiracy of birds whose fate is said to be intertwined with that of Britain, is missing, feared dead, the royal palace said on Thursday. “We have some really unhappy news to share,” the tower said on its Web site. “Our much-loved raven Merlina has not been seen at the Tower for several weeks, and her continued absence indicates to us that she may have sadly passed away.” According to folklore, if there are fewer than six ravens left to guard the tower, “the Crown will fall and Britain with it,” but Yeoman Warder Ravenmaster Chris Skaife, who looks after the birds, assured worried Britons already battered by the COVID-19 pandemic and Brexit that the kingdom was safe — for now. “Obviously, as the ravenmaster, my concern is looking after the kingdom, but we do have seven ravens here at the Tower of London, six by royal decree and, of course, I still have a spare one, so we’re OK at the moment,” Skaife told the BBC. The decree, purportedly issued in the 17th century, stated that there must be six on site at any one time. Skaife in an interview in October last year said that he usually keeps two as spares, “just in case,” and that Merlina was his favorite. Merlina, described by the tower as the “undisputed ruler of the roost,” was last seen at the historic palace by the River Thames several weeks ago. “Just before Christmas, before we went into the lockdown, we were putting the ravens to bed and she didn’t come back,” Skaife said. He described Merlina as a “free-spirited raven, that has been known to leave the tower precincts on many occasion.” However, “she normally comes back to us, but this time she didn’t, so I do fear that she is not with us
A Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor and nanotechnology expert has been charged with failing to disclose to the US Department of Energy millions of dollars in funding he allegedly received from China, the latest in a slew of similar cases. Chen Gang (陳剛), 56, a naturalized US citizen from China, was charged with wire fraud, making a false statement in a tax return and failing to disclose a foreign bank account, the US Department of Justice said. In a court appearance by videoconference, a federal judge in Boston on Thursday said that he anticipated requiring Chen to post a secured bond “in the neighborhood” of US$1 million. The case follows a “China Initiative” launched by the justice department in 2018 to investigate and prosecute cases of economic espionage intended to benefit China. The program has resulted in dozens of prosecutions for hacking, and for data and trade secret theft. Federal prosecutors last year filed a series of such cases across the US, an election year during which US President Donald Trump blamed China for the COVID-19 pandemic, continued a trade dispute and accused Chinese technology companies of spying on Americans. The effort has extended into this year. A senior NASA scientist on Wednesday admitted to lying about his participation in a program the US says was designed to siphon intellectual property to China. “To put this threat into perspective, we have now reached the point where the FBI is opening a new China-related counterintelligence case about every 10 hours and of the 5,000 active counterintelligence cases the FBI has, nearly half of them are related to China,” Joseph Bonavolonta, the FBI’s special agent in charge, said at a news conference on Thursday. He was quick to add that “we are not suggesting that all, or even most, Chinese students, professors and researchers are somehow up to no good.” Robert
MADE IN TAIWAN: FaceHeart demonstrated software that scans for severe shortness of breath, high fever, dehydration, elevated heart rate and other symptoms
From coronavirus-zapping drones to smart masks to disease-predicting wearables, the technology sector is showcasing ways to detect and mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic. The health crisis which forced this week’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) online has also spawned innovations for fighting the pandemic. Drone maker Draganfly showcased its camera technology that can be used to produce alerts on social distancing and also detect changes in people’s vital signs, which might be an early indicator of COVID-19 infection. Draganfly chief executive Cameron Chell said that the “vital intelligence assessment” system can be “deployed from any camera, not just a drone camera,” to measure vital signs such as heart or respiratory rate and blood pressure. The company has been deploying its drones to spray disinfectant in large public spaces, such as sports stadiums. “This allows public places to have the opportunity to be opened up again,” Chell told a CES online briefing. “We’re completely overwhelmed with demand.” In a similar vein to the Draganfly system, Taiwan-based FaceHeart demonstrated software that can be installed in cameras for contactless measurement of vital signs. FaceHeart said its algorithms scan for signs of severe shortness of breath, high fever, dehydration, elevated heart rate and other symptoms which are early indicators of COVID-19. One new wearable device being shown at CES from Colorado-based BioIntelliSense is a coin-sized sticker called BioButton, which can detect changes in vital signs that could be linked to the coronavirus. The patch, to be worn on a person’s chest, can detect skin temperature, heart rate, coughing frequency and more, the company said. The BioButton, which is paired with mobile apps, “represents a significant advancement in making continuous medical-grade monitoring reliable, effortless and cost-effective,” BioIntelliSense chief executive James Mault said. “The convenience of the BioButton will support a range of clinical use cases ... and mass market use to enable safe return to work or school,”
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