AI, facial recognition tech front and centre at China security expo
BEIJING: AI tech that spots “undesirable” behaviour and long-distance facial recognition software was on show on Thursday (Jun 8) at a Beijing expo attended by hundreds of companies – many blacklisted by the United States for their alleged role in repression in China and abroad. The three-day Security China eventContinue Reading
Delhi: The city where it is dangerous to breathe
Getty ImagesImages of the Statue of Liberty in New York – obscured by a thick haze of smoke caused by wildfires in neighbouring Canada – have shocked the United States.
But in the Indian capital Delhi, the iconic India Gate hidden behind a thick haze is a reality every winter.
Smoke from farmers burning crop stubble in neighbouring states mixes with pollutants released by fire crackers that are set off by millions of revellers during the Hindu festival of Diwali.
This produces a thick blanket of smog that covers the city.
The air gets dangerously bad, with pollution reaching levels nearly five times what the World Health Organization considers safe. It is the equivalent of smoking packs of cigarettes a day.
You can feel the pollution on your skin, see it on the horizon – as the skyline turns a sickly grey-yellow – and taste it in your throat.
Residents are implored to stay inside, keep the windows and doors closed and wear masks when stepping out.
It is like a scene from a dystopian novel or an apocalyptic film, except that it is real.
Delhi’ites – as the city’s residents are called – start complaining of stuffy noses, burning eyes and pounding heads.
Hospitals begin to fill up with wheezing people with breathing difficulties.
Those who can afford it, rush to buy expensive air purifiers. But these are effective only in closed rooms.
The city and its suburbs, that make up India’s national capital region, are home to more than 32 million people, the majority of whom have to get out and about.
The poor who reside in the city’s slums and shanties, alongside millions of daily wage workers, roadside vendors and traffic policemen who work outdoors, are condemned to breathe the foul air.
Roadside fires that are started to keep warm as temperatures dip and the nights get colder, also contribute to an increase in the pollution levels.
And as the city routinely tops the list of “world’s most polluted capitals”, Delhi’ites obsessively check apps that provide a reading of the air quality index.
The levels of PM2.5, the lung-damaging tiny particles in the air that can exacerbate a host of health issues like cancer and cardiac problems, and PM10 – slightly larger particles, but still pretty damaging – are of particular interest.
Levels of PM2.5 below 50 are considered “good” and under 100 “satisfactory”.
It is summer now, and there have been occasional days of clear blue skies and bouts of unexpected rainfall.
But the PM2.5 levels in Delhi on Thursday are still hovering around 150 on Safar and other Indian government apps.
On some winter days, they rise to 400 or even breach 500 – the maximum the apps can measure.
Experts say exposure to such high levels of pollution make people more prone to all kinds of infections – they increase the risk of heart attacks and can damage vital organs like the liver and brain.
A study done by US research group Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (Epic), last year found that air pollution in Delhi can shorten lives by almost a decade.
When things get really unbearable, schools and colleges are shut, construction work is halted and trucks that run on diesel are banned from the city.
Other emergency measure include encouraging people to work from home and curbing the use of private cars.
But critics say these measures are like putting a bandage on a gunshot wound.
So, every year, as the air turns murky, judges of the Indian Supreme Court haul state and federal governments into court, asking them what they intend to do about the problem,
Experts say cleaning up the air requires drastic measures – but they are not a priority for the country’s leaders.
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Phase 1 of high-speed rail ready âby 2026â
Bangkok-Korat line part of a system that will ultimately reach Kunming
The first phase of a high-speed railway that will eventually link the Chinese city of Kunming with Bangkok will be completed in 2026, government spokesman Anucha Burapachaisri said on Thursday.
The 251-kilometre first-phase line will have six stops from Bangkok to Nakhon Ratchasima: Bangsue Grand Station, Don Muang, Ayutthaya, Saraburi and Pak Chong.
The Fuxing Hao CR300AF train — capable of carrying at least 600 passengers — is expected to be used for the project, Mr Anucha said.
The project consists of 15 construction contracts: one for system construction and 14 for civil engineering work. Construction has been completed on just one contract, with 10 others under way and three others awaiting authorities’ signatures.
According to Mr Anucha, Chinese authorities have promised the Thai government to transfer knowledge related to high-speed railway construction, including materials, constructing rail lines on different kinds of terrain, station design, and bridge and tunnel construction.
“The railway will help to enhance the country’s economy and well-being,” he said.
The rail project has been beset by delays since it was first proposed to the government back in 2010.
One major sticking point was financing, with Thailand insisting that it would fund the project, as it did not want to repeat the experiences of other countries that had borrowed from China to fund megaprojects.
In Laos, Beijing paid 70% of the costs of the Vientiane-Boten high-speed rail line and much of the Lao government’s contribution came from loans from Chinese banks.
Escaping Myanmar scam gangs a challenge
Government says it has repatriated 63 of 140 Thais who sought help
CHAING RAI: More than 140 Thais have sought help after being duped by online scam gangs to work in Myanmar’s Shan state since last year, and about 60 have been rescued so far, according to the Consular Affairs Department
Ruj Thammongkol, the department’s director-general, provided the update at a meeting on Wednesday with representatives of other groups seeking solutions to speed up the repatriation of victims.
Participants included Paveena Hongsakul, president of the Paveena Foundation for Children and Women, and officials from the Thai embassy in Yangon, the Chiang Rai Chamber of Commerce and the Migrant Worker Assistance Centre in Chiang Rai.
Many Thais are lured by online advertisements on social media promising higher wages and attractive welfare packages, said Pol Col Sanya Niumpradit, Police Attache of the Royal Thai Embassy in Myanmar.
However, they later became victims of scammers, with their passports taken, he said, adding that many had contacted the embassy for help.
Pym Chaiyasan, first secretary of the embassy, said most of the victims came from Thailand’s northeastern and central regions, and none were Chiang Rai residents.
Amnat Phalapleewan, director of the Thai Nationals Overseas Interests Protection Division of the Consular Department, said most of them reported having been lured to work illegally in Myanmar.
“About 140 people asked us for help but we have been able to repatriate only 63 of them so far,” he said. “The problem is that the rescue process can take about two to three months.”
Establishing an investigation centre to punish those who file false complaints to the division could reduce the rescue process to a few weeks, he said.
An immigration office in Chiang Rai also reported that Thais who were lured by criminals did not cross the border using the Mae Sai immigration checkpoint. Instead, they used natural crossings, which made it hard for officers to track them, it said.
According to a report by The Border Consortium (TBC), 11 out of 18 Thais, aged 20–30 years old, were rescued from call centre gangs from November to January, leaving the rest yet to be rescued.
It said the victims viewed recruitment ads on Facebook, Line and TikTok about working in the Myanmar border town of Tachileik, promising free food and accommodation and high pay.
However, after crossing, they were sent to other cities in Shan state to work for call centre gangs, it said.
Some of them were forced to sign contracts written in the Chinese language, it said, noting that they were abused while some of the women were forced to sell sex.
A similar message came from the Paveena Foundation for Children and Women, which said some of the women were forced to use drugs and became prostitutes while others were held for ransom.
About S$20 million lost to job scams since May: Police
SINGAPORE: About S$20 million (US$15 million) have been lost by job scam victims since May this year, the Singapore Police Force (SPF) said on Thursday (Jun 8). There have been at least 1,399 victims in that time, the police added. The scammer will entice victims by offering them fake job opportunitiesContinue Reading
Snap Insight: Heft of Tharman Shanmugaratnam may deter others from contesting Singapore Presidential Election
Surveys conducted by the Institute of Policy Studies suggest that in lieu of deep knowledge of candidates’ backgrounds and inclinations, voters would opt for candidates of the same ethnicity. If the voters are minorities, their second choice would be a Chinese candidate. In this way and left on its own, Chinese candidates would always prevail.
If there is a contest this year, it will be an opportunity to see if qualifications and political standing can transcend race when it comes to electing our Head of State. While Mr Tharman is ethnically Indian, his family is multiracial and arguably, quintessentially Singaporean – a unique asset to our sense of national identity.
A CANDIDATE HELD IN HIGH REGARD
Senior Minister Tharman is well-regarded domestically and on the international stage. His tenure as Finance Minister from 2007 to 2015 contributed to Singapore’s progressive socio-economic policymaking and thought leadership at international fora.
As Singapore seeks its way through a period of shifting geopolitical tides among major powers and growing concerns about the costs of living, Mr Tharman has the depth of knowledge and grasp of the key principles of fiscal prudence to exercise the second key to the country’s past reserves, an important custodial power the President wields.
It is possible to imagine how world leaders and intellectuals will not only put the Istana on their calling card, but be prepared to trade insights on global trends with him as equals, if elected.
This will be an asset for Singapore when the world is in a state of flux. This is not to say that Mr Tharman or any President can set government policy, but he will become a useful and trusted conduit of strategic information about the changing policy context for the government.
ASEAN to hold first joint military drills in South China Sea
JAKARTA: Southeast Asian nations have agreed to hold their first joint military drills in the South China Sea, Indonesian officials said on Thursday (Jun 8), as tensions grow over China’s increasing assertiveness in the region. “We will hold joint military drills in the North Natuna Sea,” Indonesian military chief Yudo MargonoContinue Reading
Afghanistan blast: Taliban officials targeted at mosque prayers
unknownAn explosion inside a mosque in north-east Afghanistan has caused multiple casualties.
Reports say several local Taliban officials were among those killed or wounded.
A local official said the blast happened during a prayer service for the deputy governor of Badakhshan province, who was killed by a car bomb earlier this week.
The Islamic State militant group said they carried out the car bomb attack.
Muizuddin Ahmadi, the local Taliban head of information, said it was unclear how many people had been killed in the mosque blast in the provincial capital, Faizabad, but there had been multiple casualties.
Mourners were attending the funeral of Maulvi Ahmadi, the Taliban deputy governor of Badakhshan, who was killed on his way to work on Tuesday. One other person was killed and six wounded in that attack.
Two sources confirmed to the BBC that two local Taliban officials were killed at the mosque. They include the former police commander of northern Baghlan province.
Eyewitnesses said gunfire could be heard after the explosion.
Footage sent to the BBC shows several casualties arriving at the hospital in the capital by ambulance.
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13 May 2022
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Is US readying to reveal captured alien spacecraft?
Claims the US government has secretly retrieved crashed alien spacecraft and their non-human occupants are hardly new. They are firmly entrenched in post-war American UFO lore and conspiracy theory, inspiring the most famous narrative in ufology: the “Roswell incident.”
Now, however, journalists Leslie Kean and Ralph Blumenthal have injected fresh vigor into these aging claims – apparently with the Pentagon’s approval.
In an article for science and technology news site The Debrief, they report the US government, its allies, and defense contractors have retrieved multiple craft of non-human origin, along with the occupants’ bodies.
Additionally, they report this information has been illegally withheld from US Congress, the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office established by the US Department of Defense in 2022 to look into UFOs, and the public.
What are the claims?
The primary source for the new claims is former US intelligence official David Grusch.
Grusch’s credentials, verified by Kean and Blumenthal, are impressive. He is a veteran of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and the National Reconnaissance Office. He represented both organizations on the US government’s task force studying unidentified aerial phenomena (the official term for UFOs).
Grusch says the retrieved materials are:
of exotic origin (non-human intelligence, whether extraterrestrial or unknown origin) based on the vehicle morphologies and material science testing and the possession of unique atomic arrangements and radiological signatures.
Grusch’s claims are supported by Jonathan Grey, who works for the National Air and Space Intelligence Center, where he focuses on analysis of unidentified aerial phenomena. Grey told Kean and Blumenthal:
The non-human intelligence phenomenon is real. We are not alone […] Retrievals of this kind are not limited to the United States.
How credible are the claims?
Kean and Blumenthal are credible and accomplished reporters on UFOs.
In 2017, writing with Helene Cooper for the New York Times, they revealed a secret US$22 million Pentagon UFO research program. That article did much to initiate a wider rethinking about UFOs, avoiding stereotypes, stigma and sensationalism.
Most of the subsequent “UFO turn” in US defense policy and public discourse has focused on images and eyewitness testimony of anomalous airborne objects. Now, Kean and Blumenthal may have brought anomalous objects themselves – and even their supposed non-human occupants – into the conversation.
[embedded content]
Shortly after the Debrief article, Australian journalist Ross Coulthart’s interview with Grusch appeared on US news network News Nation. Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, Christopher Mellon, has also published an article in Politico calling for greater transparency.
This looks a lot like an orchestrated effort to convince the public (and US Congress) something much more substantial than “things in the sky we can’t explain” is going on.
Approved by the Pentagon?
Grusch seems to have followed Pentagon protocol in publishing his information. Kean and Blumenthal write Grusch:
provided the Defense Office of Prepublication and Security Review at the Department of Defense with the information he intended to disclose to us. His on-the-record statements were all “cleared for open publication” on April 4 and 6, 2023, in documents provided to us.
What does that mean? A Prepublication and Security Review is how the Pentagon confirms information proposed for public release is reviewed to ensure compliance with established national and Department of Defense policies, and to determine it:
contains no classified, controlled unclassified, export-controlled, or operational security related information.
If Grusch’s information is true, it is surely both “classified” and “operational security related.” So why would the Pentagon approve its publication?
If Grusch’s information is false, it would probably not qualify as classified or operational security related. But this raises another question: why would the Pentagon approve the publication of an unfounded conspiracy theory about itself?
Doing so would likely mislead the public, journalists, and Congress. It would also undermine the Pentagon’s own attempt to understand the unidentified aerial phenomena problem: the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office.
An official denial
Indeed, the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office told News Nation it:
has not discovered any verifiable information to substantiate claims that any programs regarding the possession or reverse-engineering of extraterrestrial materials have existed in the past or exist currently.
Grusch has an explanation for this apparent ignorance. When it comes to unidentified aerial phenomena investigations, he says, the US government’s left hand doesn’t know what its right is doing, with:
multiple agencies nesting [unidentified aerial phenomena] activities in conventional secret access programs without appropriate reporting to various oversight authorities.
Timothy Good’s classic 1987 exploration of UFO investigations, Above Top Secret, described similar bureaucracy.
Nested activities and segregated knowledge
The notion of “nested” unidentified aerial phenomena activities, segregating knowledge within vast bureaucracies, is partly what makes Grusch’s claims both intriguing and (for now) unverifiable.
If this is the case, organizations focusing on unidentified aerial phenomena, such as the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, may operate in earnest and report transparently on the best information they have. Yet they may also be deprived of information essential to their activities.
This would make them little more than PR fronts, designed to create the impression of meaningful action.
In the absence of direct experience of unidentified aerial phenomena, most of us rely on information about them to form our beliefs. Scrutinizing how this information is produced and distributed is essential.
US government activity in this area will continue. Congressman James Comer, chair of the House Oversight Committee, has said he will hold a hearing on UFOs in response to Grusch’s allegations.
Adam Dodd is Tutor, School of Communication and the Arts, The University of Queensland
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Tharman Shanmugaratnam hopes to be a ‘unifying figure’ if elected as President
Mr Tharman also said that his decision to run for President was not rushed.
“I’ve been thinking about it for some months, I wanted to wait to see whether President Halimah was going to stand again but people have been talking to me for some time,” he said.
“I said it is a difficult decision because I’m very comfortable as a policymaker but I think we are entering a fundamentally different era, fundamentally different times,” he said.
He added that people have more varied views and preferences, and that Singapore is maturing as a population and as an electorate.
Internationally, it is a fundamentally more uncertain environment, and Singapore needs to hold its own.
“I make no assumptions about my chances in this race. I’ve never made assumptions in all the elections I have taken part in. This is different because it’s not a political contest, unlike general elections I’ve been through, this is not a political contest. This is about choosing the right person,” he said.
“I still make no assumptions about my chances. I put myself forward to serve to the best of my ability using all my experience in economics and finance, in international affairs, and the standing I have internationally.
“I put myself forward to serve Singaporeans in this new role.”
Following discussions with the other Members of Parliament for Jurong GRC, he said Mr Shawn Huang will take over his Meet-the-People sessions, covering both Taman Jurong and Jurong Spring.
For all other events such as meeting residents for other matters, the other MPs will take turns, he said.
“Once the party decides on who might be a potential candidate for the next round, he or she will have to be on the ground, working very hard,” said Mr Tharman.
“So that’s the system. I think Jurong will be served very well because we work very cohesively as a team. I must say I’ve had a wonderful team.”